British Society of Enamellers

The British Society of Enamellers Symposium was held on 17th June, 2006

Transcripts or extracts from the presentations will appear here quarterly, starting in October 2006, after they have been in the newsletter. Conveying the experience of attending the BSOE symposium is not going to be easy. Each speaker gave a unique picture of contemporary enamelling and it was the juxtaposition of the four presentations that made clear what was happening in the medium and how British enamelling could progress.

Simon Fraser posed challenging questions that enamellers should address, Marjorie Simon’s presentation showed how American enamellers were contributing to development of enamelling, particularly in the area of content, and Christine Rew explained how museum curators approached the task of adding to their collections, illustrating her point by showing some of her recent purchases that included enamel pieces. Elizabeth Turrell presented fascinating photographs of the large scale facilities at the Enamel Research Centre and of the work of visiting artists. Including Elizabeth’s own commissioned work, the enamelling done at this facility was seen to be discovering points of departure that contemporary enamelling is looking for.

THE SPEAKERS:

Simon Fraser MA

Symposium Presentation: ‘Design Interventions?’

Over the past forty years the rise of a broader design culture has challenged the practice of many applied art and crafts disciplines here in Europe and also in North America, Japan and Australia. The negotiations with this developing culture have often enriched the practice and been clearly beneficial for the incomes of the ‘designer makers’ themselves. What sort of approaches have these designers used and what did they want to achieve? What did design offer them that a more studio or arts based practice did not? Were they always ‘honest’ about what they were doing or did some makers deliberately misrepresent a new form of artistic self-expression by combining it with a rather more pragmatic design approach? What might enamel gain from this?

About Simon Fraser: Fraser has worked in and around jewellery as a designer, design manager and consultant, maker, performer, writer, critic, broadcaster and teacher for over 25 years.

Graduating from Sheffield Hallam University during the early 1980s, he set up his own business in Scotland making large-scale nylon jewellery that found success within the fashion and high design worlds. After some years Fraser moved his business to London to be more accessible to his client base, who were predominantly from Japan, Europe and the USA.

Following an MA at the Royal College of Art, and, after a long term interest in performance and curiosity about why the role of a jeweller seemed so constrained, Fraser started working on small performance events, culminating in 1991 with ‘Alchemy with a Piano’ at the ICA, London, where an entire domestic piano was transformed into jewellery during a 24 hour period by a team of three. Rebuilding his workshop on a raked stage, he gave the audience and the makers a dual role in the performance.

Alongside performance Fraser worked as a consultant and designer for other jewellery businesses and entered teaching, both in Silversmithing, Jewellery and Art and Design BA Hon degree courses.

Two UNDP teaching seasons in India at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, were followed by a part-time job within the University of the Arts Camberwell College Cultural History team.

Two years later a role was developed at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design that saw Fraser work to revitalise the jewellery school, initially as part of a team that contained Prof. Reema Pachachi, until recently the Creative Director at De Beers LVMH, and also Elizabeth Olver, who now works with Links of London.

Over a period of 2 years from 1999 onwards, Fraser curated and developed an exhibition called ‘Contemporary Japanese Jewellery’ for the Crafts Council in London. The biggest ever survey of Japanese studio jewellery artists outside Japan, the exhibition was an in depth introduction to one of the world's newest but flourishing jewellery cultures; the catalogue is still in print.

Fraser has been a senior tutor for 14 years at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, High Wycombe, on its well-known Designed Metalwork and Jewellery BA course, where an interest in the table top landscape and the metal arts is strong.

Simon Fraser’s most recent major performance piece took place in 2003 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. ‘Tremblant’ was a piece for 8 performers, all over 20 stone, wearing enormous jewellery pieces in an electronic light and soundscape created by the jewellery.

Until last spring Fraser had spent two years as the Creative Director for OSO a jewellery label instigated by Freschi & Vangelisti Srl, Arezzo, Italy with the launch collection featuring at Via Corso Como, Milan and Libertys, London among others.

The development of MA Design: Ceramics, Furniture & Jewellery for Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London is a major focus at present. However he also co-ordinates and has directed consultancies with the students for high level design led companies.

Simon Fraser’s own work is in a number of major private and public collections including The National Museum of Scotland and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Marjorie Simon - Enameller

Symposium Presentation: Title - Anything Goes, Or An Insider’s Look at American Enamel.

Symposium presentation: The United States is that new, brash, young cousin across the Atlantic. We identify ourselves as a nation of immigrants, risk-takers who embrace the new and jettison the old. Though not uninvolved in world events of the past 60 years, we have not experienced war on our soil in over a century. In the arts, much learning goes on, outside of the academic circles, in community based programs. I intend to look at current enamel work in the light of some typically "American" attributes, if there can be such a thing in today's global village.

About Marjorie Simon: As a jeweller who frequently incorporates enamel in her work, Marjorie Simon is highly regarded and has had a distinguished career. Her jewellery has been shown at ten of the important international SOFA exhibitions in Chicago and New York, and at craft shows at major venues in the United States, including those organised by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She has published many articles and reviews about contemporary jewellers, particularly those working with enamel and gold.

In addition, Marjorie has taught workshops at venues throughout the United States and her work is shown in select galleries such as Studio Fusion in London, Jewelers’werk Galerie in Washington, DC, and Charon Kransen Arts in New York.

Marjorie writes about her present activities: At the moment I teach only workshops, at community based art centers, or craft communities such as Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School, and the like. Occasionally I am a visiting artist at academic institutions, too. I write craft criticism, book reviews, and artist profiles, primarily for Metalsmith magazine, but I have also written for American Craft, and several long catalogue essays, such as for Liv Blavarp, the Norwegian jeweler who works in wood, and Bob Ebendorf, for his recent retrospective. At the end of 2005 I rotated off the Editorial Advisory Committee for Metalsmith, after seven years on the committee, four as Chair. I was a founding member of A/K/A:92, a small group of women artists who met at the 92nd Street YWHA in New York in the 1980s. I also work in my studio!

Elizabeth Turrell - Senior Research Fellow in Enamel, Head of the Enamel Research Centre at the University of the West of England

Symposium Presentation: Elizabeth Turrell will set the context and aims of Enamel Research at the University of West England.

She will speak about the background to the development of enamel in Bristol, the establishment of the enamel programme/centre at the School of Art, Media, and Design, UWE, and describe the large-enamel kiln facility there which brings access to enamel to the undergraduates, the graduate programme, and the enamel Master class and workshop. She will also describe her commissioned work, visiting artists and collaborative projects, her interest in print in enamel and technical research, the Enamel Archive and other activities connected with enamel.

About Elizabeth Turrell: Elizabeth Turrell trained as a ceramist at the Central School of Art and Design London. In 1974 she established the Enamel Department at the School of Art and Design at Queen’s Road Bristol.

In 2000 she received a three year Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship in the Visual and Performing Arts. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow in Enamel and heads the Enamel Research Centre at the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol. Enamel Research at UWE has developed a reputation for both high quality research and collaboration with visiting artists. The primary aim of the enamel research initiative is to establish UWE as a centre for excellence in research and professional practice.

One of her long-term commitments has been to promote and raise the profile of contemporary vitreous enamel. Her intention is to establish it as a significant area of the visual arts, exploring the creative potential of enamel on metal - particularly the possibilities of print in enamel. She has also initiated the International Contemporary Vitreous Enamel Archive (ICVEA), which was supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Board grant. Her involvement in a series of public commissions has included working with established artists who normally work in other media - and are new to enamel.

Elizabeth exhibits both nationally and internationally; she has taught workshops and given lectures throughout the UK, USA and India. Her other professional activities include a directorship of Studio Fusion Gallery, Oxo Tower Wharf London.

Christine Rew - Officer in Charge (acting), Museums and Galleries, Aberdeen.

Symposium Presentation: Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are repositories of knowledge, recording how people have lived and worked and what they have achieved. And they help to create a sense of cultural identity.

With this “mission statement”, how do curators chose what to add to the collections they hold on behalf of the public? What motivates them to chose one object over another? Is it better to collect modern, contemporary work with all the risks attached or to concentrate on the historic, whose values are already established?

Drawing on my own experience of collecting decorative art for the public collections held at Aberdeen Art Gallery for over 20 years, my talk will attempt to answer these questions. I will use objects from the Crafts collection to discuss the joys and responsibilities of adding to a collection held in trust for the public, including metalwork and jewellery and an interesting group of historic enamels which will introduce the subject of modern enamels.

About Christine Rew: In addition to a career ranging from Assistant Keeper with the Glasgow Museums to the Officer in Charge (Acting) for Museums and Galleries in Aberdeen, Christine Rew has acted as an advisor to the Scottish Arts Council in a number of capacities, in particular as a Member of the CAS National Collecting Scheme for Scotland. Her extensive list of publications includes articles for Crafts Magazine, the National Art Collections Fund Review, and the Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History.