Here’s couple of things I meant to include in the last blog, and a new thing that popped up since that time.
1/ My twitter feed was all abuzz last week, with the talks of ‘merger’. Who was responsible..? UK, take a bow! The latest shining example of cooperation and connectivity was seen with the merging last week of two skilled craftspeople associations, the National Association of Goldsmiths (N.A.G.) and the British Jewellers’ Association (BJA). The new organisation, the National Association of Jewellers:
“will represent over 2,000 businesses and will strengthen the provision of education, training and lobbying government with a clear vision on raising standards.
The NAJ will create a strong brand identity that will be recognised by consumers as a mark of excellence, focusing on increasing consumer confidence in the purchase of jewellery and creating a robust Code of Practice that all members will be expected to abide by.”
2/ JUNK – Rubbish to Gold is on Kickstarter! More love to the UK for this project, which is fundraising to help its effort in reclaiming old and making new jewellery during a 1 week performative project at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham in November. A great description is in an article about one of the organisations from where some of the jewellery is to be collected, The Mare and Foal Sanctuary in Somerset:
The initiative sees charities give old and unusable trinkets to the school, whose students will collate all of the donations and turn them into desirable items to resell. These new items will then be sold in an online silent auction – with each charity involved receiving a percentage of the profits proportional to the weight of the jewellery they donated.
Check out the Kickstarter page – it’s going to be an incredible project to be involved with, and will benefit many in the wider community through the various charities involved.
(and kudos to the Benchpeg newsletter, where I found extra links for both of these UK related items.)
3/ And in Australia now, and ArtsHub, an artist organisation, has published an article on jewellery making with input from local talent and galleries, in the ramp up to Radiant Pavilion in September. Career spotlight: Contemporary jeweller. You can expect to see a lot more about Radiant Pavilion around this site in the coming months. It’s going to be awesome!