On Jewellery

Question: Who does the most interesting writing on jewellery?

Who fires you up, or makes you think? Who do you habitually agree with? When you plonk down in front of your computer, or with a cup of tea and your favourite journal for a read, whose name pulls you in? Or, potentially even more instructive, when you’re busy and you triage the articles before you, who do you really pore over, and who might you just skim, or even skip?

I admit that I read lots of blogs, so I go via blog titles mostly, and the ones I find myself compelled to read first – for the content or the writing itself – are often not jewellery but arts or architecture related. And although I’m loath to admit, sometimes I feel as though I read the longer-form jewellery articles just for my health. You know, the article/writing is not that tasty, but it will make me stronger in the long run…

(By the way, I’m not talking individual artists here, [excuse me again while I generalise] as the blog posts of a maker are a continuing first-person narrative. I’m talking about jewellery writers – critics, historians, reviewers, and possibly even curators or gallerists who regularly talk about jewellery.  And for these purposes I’m also excluding academics, unless their academic research focusses on writing and not making.)

Places like the Art Jewelry Forum blog have a revolving list of articles by different authors, so if I do read something worth taking note of, I will find the writer’s name for future reference. But since it’s a multi-author blog (though Susan Cummins does a lot there at the moment) there’s not much chance that the writer will have one of their articles pop up twice in a row.

What I’m getting at is I could barely give you a handful of writers who regularly offer solid jewellery discussion and criticism. Bruce Metcalf. Damien Skinner. Kevin Murray. Susan Cummins. These people I know. As you can see, I think I need educating, so, who am I missing?