Metalsmith Magazine. Vol 43 No 1

There are cycles to which all living things are bound. I’m not talking just about birth and death here. I think of artistic practices and the communities we build around them as “living things” that require tending. There are ebbs and flows to our creative practices, and constant shifts in the balance between individuals and our communities. This notion undergirds my approach to this publication generally, but it’s also particularly resonant in this issue. 

Space is held throughout the issue for the complexities and vulnerabilities of being human. There are delights herein, and there are griefs. These aren’t clear dichotomies, but states that overlap and rub up against one another. It is in this spirit that we present “Voice & Vision,” a new column for the intertwined practices of language and object-making.

Jewelry and poems by Ariella Har-Even are our first foray. Both Maya Kini’s “Career Topographies” and D Wood’s profile on Lanny Bergner contain notions of wayfinding through life’s challenges, finding one’s path as a maker, and confronting questions of starting anew after disruptions like illness, caretaking, and grief. In “Crit Group,” Jillian Moore shares a highly personal account of what happens when big plans fail spectacularly. Funlola Coker makes a plea in “LOOK” for a metals community that includes more Black and Brown makers. An account of the Plan B Art Project by Katie Griffith highlights how the jewelry community has coalesced around the fight for bodily autonomy. The heft of these topics is countered with joyful offerings: Jackie Andrews’s celebration of queer storytelling, Rebekah Frank’s account of Kelly Dzioba’s colorful work, and Olivia Shih’s profile on jeweler Jalnar Dhanani. 

The process of writing this foreword came under the weight of grief tugging at my heart. This issue was set in motion well before the sad news of Sharon Church’s death arrived to me via text on a bitterly cold day in late December. I have thought long and often about Sharon in the few months since she left this plane of existence. I’ve thought about her presence in my life as my teacher, as the person who introduced me to the world of art jewelry, setting me on the trajectory that eventually led to my role at this publication. I know she was proud of this fact, and that she was proud of me. What strikes me now, in piecing together the themes of this issue, is that remembering Sharon—whose work captured the beauty and poetry of growth and decay, of life and death—feels right at home with the content offered here. 

/ Adriane Dalton, Editor

Features:

Lanny Bergner: Meshing about
Weaving a career from a marriage of metal and fibre techniques
By D Wood.

Jewelery for Bodily Autonomy plan B Art Project
A Traveling exhibit defends a person's right to choose
By Katie Griffith.

Career Topographies: Conversations in the middle
Three midcareer artists respond to the shifts of life and practice 
By Maya Kini.

Departments

Voice & Vision by Ariella Har-Even.
View: Out/Loud: Queer Storytelling by Jackie Andrews.
Ask me Anything by Aric Verrastro.
In production: Jalnar Dhanani by Olivia Shih.
Look: Ask about us by Funlola Coker.
Jewelry Thinking: Kelly Dzioba by Rebekah Frank.
In Memoriam by Sharon Church.
Crit Group: "Things Fall Apart" by Jillian Moore.
Events Calendar: Happenings.