- We requested collectors, jewellery makers, gallerists, and curators for tips about the sorts of items they choose for journey and the way they transport them safely
When famend jewellery collector Susan Grant Lewin packs for a visit, she at all times takes rings. Lewin doesn’t usually put on earrings or brooches, and he or she normally doesn’t pack multiple necklace, however she will be able to’t go wherever with out her old flame: rings.
Choose jewellery that’s very moveable
Lewin typically travels with silver rings by New York maker Biba Schutz and Swiss maker Luzia Vogt. “They’re simple to journey with—I simply throw them in my bag,” she says. “To me, these are excellent journey rings as a result of they’re so snug and uncomplicated.” She additionally likes to take alongside a handful of different rings, chosen for his or her simplicity. They’re by Roxana Cervantes Barajas, from Mexico; Susanne Klemm, from the Netherlands; Anita Münz, from Austria; and France Roy, from Canada.
Retailer items at hand or someplace safe
Lewin retains the rings, wrapped in tissue paper and bubble wrap, in her purse or within the lodge protected.
Over the past a number of years, Lewin has donated a whole bunch of rings by lots of a very powerful up to date jewellery artists to the Yale College Artwork Gallery, the SCAD Museum of Artwork, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Wrap jewellery to maintain it protected
What do different artwork jewellery lovers take with them when touring? We requested collectors, jewellery makers, gallerists, and curators to share the items they pack and the way they transport them. Brooches are the most well-liked, bracelets the least. Most are packed in packing containers with tissue paper or bubble wrap, however a few necklaces hit the highway nestled in a bowling ball bag.
Ann McEldowney likes to journey with a Pierre Cavalan brooch that was a present from her sister, Mia McEldowney, an influential gallerist and curator who died in 2013. She owned the MIA Gallery, in Seattle, which featured studio artwork jewellery in addition to ceramics, work, and different paintings, many by artists from the Northwest. The Cavalan brooch, made in 1993, consists of discovered objects—enamel badges, a black four-leaf clover, screws, and a pair of tiny palms—together with imitation stones. McEldowney adores the number of components within the brooch, and carrying it retains her sister’s reminiscence shut.
Pin brooches to clothes, then pack them
McEldowney additionally likes to pack a brooch by Slovak artist Karol Weisslechner fabricated from two silver disks, one with a cracked pink and blue floor, the opposite with an amethyst connected to it. For journey, she pins her brooches to a costume or jacket, wraps them with bubble wrap and tissue paper, then packs all of it in her suitcase. The clothes provides an additional layer of protecting cushion. Artwork jewellery, for McEldowney, is “a beautiful method to gather up to date artwork in a small kind, and it’s artwork that I can get pleasure from and see and have with me,” she says.
Nothing’s too valuable to put on or to convey alongside—simply pack it with care
Emily Banas additionally packs brooches for journeys. “I’m having a whole lot of enjoyable with them. They’re very nice to layer, to combine and match,” says Banas, who’s assistant curator for ornamental arts and design on the RISD Museum.
In the mean time, Banas is obsessive about a brooch of two girls’s faces by Russian ceramic artist Sergei Isupov. Although it’s breakable, “I keep nothing is simply too delicate or valuable to put on day by day or to journey with in the event you pack it accurately,” Banas says. “I’m queer, and I actually love the picture of the 2 girls collectively.” Whereas photos of girls have been depicted in jewellery for hundreds of years, two girls collectively in an embrace “shouldn’t be one thing you see,” she says. “As quickly as I noticed it, I knew it was actually particular for me.”
One other favourite brooch for journey is by Philadelphia-based jeweler Luci Jockel. Her work combines typical jewelry-making supplies with animal stays, resembling honeybee wings and bones, to commemorate the lives of the creatures. Banas’s brooch, titled Restore, is common from a deer cranium, with sterling silver accents that resemble staples. She likes to pair it with an vintage silver brooch.
Pack jewellery in its authentic packaging
Banas packs the brooches within the packing containers they got here in. A colourful jewellery roll from an organization referred to as Maine Handiwork (Banas is from Maine) has a slot for one more brooch, together with a strip of mesh the place she retains her favourite earrings.
Cushion jewellery between layers of clothes
Bonnie Levine’s necklace by Rebecca Hannon “travels with me in all places,” says Levine, who’s chair of the board of Artwork Jewellery Discussion board. “As a result of I like coloration, this piece makes me so pleased, and it feels very enjoyable and playful.” Hannon, who is predicated in Canada, made the necklace utilizing laminate and metal cable, so it’s flat and versatile. Levine packs it between layers of garments, or in a small field or pouch.
When jewellery maker Steven KP travels, he can normally be discovered carrying a reddish-brown coronary heart brooch by Estonian jeweler Urmas Lüüs. The piece, a part of Lüüs’s Coronary heart sequence, is lower from Soviet-era enameled industrial cookware as an emblem of hope and love amid hardship. “It’s very wearable, and a wonderful dialog starter,” KP says.
On his shoulder, KP typically has his sentinel moth brooch by Australian jeweler Andy Lowrie, whose sequence Sentinels & Spectres examines talismans and themes of safety and fragility. The brooch is created from sterling silver that’s oxidized and powder-coated so it seems deep black. Two units of wings appear to flutter on the physique. Lots of Lowrie’s moth brooches are very colourful, however KP commissioned a black one to go along with his black and white wardrobe. The piece “is a meditation on a susceptible species,” KP says. “To make an heirloom out of one thing so fragile and momentary in its existence is, I feel, attractive.” He has a second moth brooch on order, so “I’m going to have just a little colony to put on collectively.”
Be sure that packing containers keep securely closed
KP packs the brooches in packing containers, wraps them in tissue paper, and secures the field with a rubber band.
He additionally brings alongside certainly one of his personal items, normally a draped knot brooch carved of crimson oak from his sequence Partially Undone Knots, which was exhibited at Gallery Loupe in 2022. The brooch travels within the field he made for it from the identical piece of wooden it was carved from. The piece, he says, is “a bodily reminder to occupy your physique, with all of the kinks and turns you may want undone.”
Choose versatile items that work with many alternative garments
Francine Baker, who collects along with her husband, Invoice, enjoys bringing alongside earrings by US jewellery maker Nikki Couppee that characteristic a cluster of clear faceted acrylic gems. “They’re good to put on within the night, and add sparkle to no matter outfit I’ve on,” she says. A necklace by Israeli maker Yael Krakowski, fabricated from resin and silver, is simple to pack, and the combination of colours—mustards, greens, and reds—pairs nicely with varied outfits.
A brand new piece that the Bakers plan to tackle upcoming journeys is a multi-piece necklace that may be a illustration of the COVID pandemic made by married artists Cynthia Toops and Dan Adams. A number of small mosaics, created from polymer clay, might be connected to the beaded necklace, which is glass and sterling silver. One is a face coated by a detachable masks that claims, “for you, for me.” One other mosaic opens to disclose a stitching equipment for making masks. “This ensemble is so significant and represents an eventful time in our historical past. I get pleasure from sharing the gathering with others, in addition to carrying chosen items,” Francine says.
Search for artistic packing options
Jewellery maker Shamaka Thompson has discovered the proper bag for packing her lengthy wooden necklaces: a leather-based bowling ball bag she discovered at a thrift store. Its sides are bolstered with items of iron, offering a protecting nest for her items, which encompass lengthy, curved loops of ash wooden. After the wooden is submerged in water below excessive stress to make it pliable, Thompson bends it into form and paints it.
Thompson additionally likes to convey alongside earrings by US maker Kimber Harris-Wiegand, acquired by bartering throughout a Baltimore Jewellery Middle vacation sale at which each artists had been exhibiting their work. “I like the dimensions and the colours, which have an ombré impact,” Thompson says.
In fact Thompson can’t embark on a visit and not using a favourite pair of her personal earrings, one of many first she ever made. They’re delicate loops of curved wooden, painted crimson. She supposed them to have a unique form, however the wooden cut up, forming an oval. She was in a position to cut up the wooden for the companion earring, giving it an identical form. “These are inspirational, as a result of a whole lot of the time when you could have an concept as an artist, typically the wooden has a extra natural concept that I agree with,” she says.
Deliver light-weight items with presence
Patti Bleicher normally takes one versatile brooch when she travels. A favourite, by Munich jeweler Doris Betz, consists of lavender hostaglass—a clear plastic—sewed with iron thread onto a round base of oxidized silver. “I like the materiality of the hostaglass and the best way she makes use of it,” says Bleicher, the proprietor of Gallery Loupe, in Montclair, NJ. “And I like that the brooch has scale and makes a press release, however it’s nonetheless very mild. It’s simple to put on, and it goes with all the things.”
Tiny earrings from Australian jeweler Laura Deakin’s Dishonest Pearls sequence typically come alongside on Bleicher’s journeys, too. To make the earrings, the artist makes use of pretend pearls to create a luster that mimics actual pearls.
Choose flat jewellery
Every year when she goes to Schmuck, Bleicher makes certain to pack a Noam Elyashiv necklace fabricated from slim sterling silver rectangles of varied lengths. “It’s not heavy and it’s flat, so you’ll be able to simply fold it up,” Bleicher says. “I like that the work is quiet, minimal, and so good.”
Notice: The go-to journey piece for the author of this text is an elegantly curved bracelet fabricated from oxidized sterling silver by jeweler Reiko Ishiyama.
