The works of German metalsmith Georg Dobler are imbued with geometry; both in the construction of the forms and in the visual relationship between the forms and the body. Dobler received his masters in goldsmithing in 1979 in Pforzheim and thereafter founded an atelier with fellow goldsmith Winfried Krüger.[1]. In recent years he has worked...
Hendrick van Hulst, Head of the Department of Decoration at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, once said, “the heavy and the trivial should be avoided; we should produce the light, sensitive, new and varied.” These words denote a clear desire, consistent with the firm's history, to set the Manufacture de Sèvres apart from all the...
“As the curtain rises, on an almost lightless stage, there is a loud singing of wind, accompanied by distant, measured reverberations like pounding surf or distant shellfire.” (1) El Camino Real refers to a series of highways dating to the Spanish colonies in North America, most typically associated with the California Mission Trail. Today much...
What were you doing when you were twelve years old: riding bikes with friends, lip synching to your favorite band, watching bad TV shows, making cookies? I might have a hard time remembering exactly what occupied my time when I was twelve, but I am absolutely certain that I was not embroidering an intricate sampler...
These simple, sculptural goblets, named Paro (“I protect” in Italian), were designed by Italian industrial designer and design educator, Achille Castiglioni. A major figure in twentieth-century design, Castiglioni was known for bringing a curious and inventive sensibility to solving design problems and investigating materials and processes. Paro’s cleverly designed versatile form is reversible, having both...
The holiday season brings out the idea at least of festive parties, and, to some, that means putting on fancy clothes and jewelry. The idea of glittering adornment to dazzle goes back to antiquity and gold has been a constant. However, innovative use of new materials, so popular now, is not new. The choice of...
This charming little object-an étui or case, is also called a necessaire. It literally held objects that might be necessary to women of social status, wealth or social pretensions. Inside, a variety of objects, all very small, are fitted in with the skill of someone who not only knows how they are made but has...
Some people still remember men who, from a small slit pocket in a waistcoat, pulled out a round pocket watch on a chain, can only think of knapsacks and hiking gear when they hear the word compass. We think of the sundial like the nice old bronze one on a stone base that I saw...
The custom of keeping a locket of hair as a token of love, or as a relic of a holy figure, has existed for centuries. The idea of using hair for the structural part of jewelry became fashionable in the eighteenth century. By the 1830s, especially in England and the United States, all sorts of...
