PAID PARTNER CONTENT
Jewelry That Makes You Think.
ARTICLE
Introduction: The Journey to Encountering the Forgotten Stories of Black Jewelry Makers

Today we introduce a series that will document the lives of African American artists of the past who made important contributions to the field of art jewelry. Some were full-time jewelry designers, others multidisciplinary artists, and still others came from the art and fashion worlds. They contributed bold new styles, experimentations with materials, and new points of view coming from the African American experience.

At the moment, no major texts specifically explore the history of Black art jewelry. Many of the books that discussed Black craft in the past went out of print years ago. Very few major publications or journals profiled Black artists or jewelers in the past, and many stories of their successes were relegated to Black-owned magazines, which were few and far in between. In addition, many pieces or works by artists, or any photographic evidence of their existence, have been lost. They disappeared through reuse of precious materials, lack of proper documentation, plain negligence, or denial of their merit.

How does one recover a past that has been nearly forgotten? How, especially, does one accomplish this task for a group of people who have historically been left out of the main narrative when it comes to discussing metalsmiths of the 20th century?

Caption: Work by Winifred Mason on the cover of Ebony magazine, December 1946, photo: unknown
WHO WILL WIN AJF'S $7,500 AWARD???
Wednesday, March 2, 12 p.m. EST

Since we can't be on the Internationale Handwerksmesse Main Stage to reveal the winner and finalists of the Young Artist Award (YAA), the next best thing is to make the announcement on AJF Live. The jurors—collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg, curator Chequita Nahar, and 2020 YAA winner MJ Tyson—will announce their names. The four finalists and the winner will then present their work. Please join us in celebrating their achievements—let's raise our glasses to them!

The biennial YAA competition offers a prize of US$7,500 for the winner and US$1,000 for each of the four finalists, as well as an exhibition at Schmuck—art jewelry's biggest and most prestigious annual event—in July 2022.

This event is free, and open to members and non-members alike. For more information and to register, follow this link.

What time?
9 a.m. PST: San Francisco
10 a.m. MST: Denver
11 a.m. CST: San Antonio, Mexico City
12 p.m. EST: Toronto, NYC
2 p.m.: Buenos Aires, Santiago
5 p.m.: London
6 p.m.: Brussels, Paris, Oslo
7 p.m.: Bucharest, Athens, Tallinn, Capetown, Tel Aviv
12 a.m. on March 3: Bangkok
2 a.m. on March 3: Seoul, Tokyo
4 a.m. on March 3: Sydney
6 a.m. on March 3: Auckland
AJF has the largest international audience of art jewelry buyers, collectors, makers, gallerists, and institutions in the world. We reach more art jewelry buyers worldwide than any other organization.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS