Green Jewelry

On Saturday I attended the Green Jewelry class at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in SF. The day was full of interesting information that ranged from how metals, diamonds and gemstones are mined to what we can do to help with the environmental and social issues due to mining. We learned tips about rethinking our studio practices in order to help the environment. And, we were treated to three live demonstrations and were shown images of work created with found objects.

The instructors were very enthusiastic about the topics, very knowledgeable and very friendly. Jennifer Horning is one of the original founders of Ethical Metalsmiths and has experience in mining law. She also creates jewelry. Christine Dhein is the Assistant Director at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts, incorporates found objects in her metal work, and authors articles and DVDs on a wide range of metalsmithing topics. Christine Dhein authors the Green Jewelry newsletter, which you can subscribe to by emailing her.

If you have an opportunity to take this class, or to listen to a shorter lecture by Ethical Metalsmiths, I highly recommend it. The Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley is working with Ethical Metalsmiths to arrange a lecture in the fall of this year. Keep an eye on the Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley's website for more details, or sign up to be on their mailing list using the link on their home page.

Below is a photo I took on the way to the Green Jewelry class. As you can see, it was a beautiful clear day in the city.

 

Christine Dhein is thinking about creating a blog where we can access her past newsletter articles. In the meantime, here are a few more ecologically oriented art blogs for those who are interested (there are some different ones listed in my blog links at the right):

Eco Art Blog

RSA Arts and Ecology

The Green Museum