Charleston Artwalk + Trunk Show – Helena Fox Fine Art
Charleston Artwalk + Trunk Show
Helena Fox Fine Art, who represents my handcrafted silver designs in their stunning downtown Charleston art gallery, is featuring my work and the paintings of artist Julyan Davis for the Charleston Artwalk Friday, November 1 from 5-8pm. You can read the full press release for our exhibition Classically Contemporary on my website Press page.
Helena Fox Fine Art regularly carries a curated selection of my silver hollowware, flatware, home objects, and jewelry. During the artwalk and on Saturday, November 2 from 11am-4pm, a wider selection of my silver home objects and jewelry will be shown, including my new Oyster Jewelry collection. I hope to see you at one of those events!
Helena Fox Fine Art
106A Church Street
Charleston, SC 29401
843-723-0073
Gibbes Museum of Art Store – Exclusive Jewelry Collection
Gibbes Museum of Art Store – Exclusive Jewelry Collection
I am extremely excited to announce the Gibbes Museum of Art Store, located in historic downtown Charleston, has commissioned an exclusive jewelry collection from me! It was a wonderful compliment when the museum store curator and manager contacted me and said she was interested in a silver jewelry collection that related to an artwork in the museum. After communicating with her and visiting the museum with fresh eyes, I noticed a relationship between Patrick Dougherty’s sculpture installation Betwixt and Between and my Twisted Jewelry Series.
Gibbes Museum of Art 2nd Floor Atrium
My Twisted Jewelry Series was inspired by birds intertwining and weaving branches and twigs together to create their nests. Patrick Dougherty’s site-specific sculpture installation Betwixt and Between, located on the 2nd Floor Atrium, also is based on weaving branches and twigs into three dimensional forms that are held together by tension. Dougherty’s large-scale installation made with natural material occupies space the human body can walk around, through, and into. My silver jewelry is small scale in comparison and meant to be worn on the body. Our work relates to one another through process and a relationship to the human form, but varies in medium and scale, which creates a fascinating contrast.
In this silver jewelry series, I explore the action of twisting silver wire together like a bird would do with branches and twigs. I handcrafted the jewelry individually in my local, Charleston studio, so even though each piece is similar, they are not identical from the hand formed process. The tension put into the silver from the intertwining and wrapping techniques makes it very strong. Therefore, the jewelry pieces are very durable and sturdy, even though they appear delicate.
Twisted Jewelry Series is sold exclusively through the Gibbes Museum of Art Store and can only be purchased through them. Be sure to check out Patrick Dougherty’s sculpture installation while visiting the museum!
To view a wider selection of my silver jewelry and functional, home objects, visit Helena Fox Fine Art, located walking distance nearby at 106-A Church Street.
New Oyster Jewelry Designs
New Oyster Jewelry Designs
My silver Oyster Jewelry Series has been so incredibly popular, I have expanded the collection to include new earrings, necklaces, pendants, and bracelets. I am very excited about these new additions to my oyster jewelry line and spent a lot of time on the designs, construction methods, and wearability of each piece.
What started out as a pair of earrings for a corporate commission based on the Lowcountry oyster has developed into a full collection of original and thoughtful jewelry. When first approached with this corporate gift for a group retreat at Palmetto Bluff, I wanted to create a jewelry design that was a contemporary, abstract interpretation of a Lowcountry theme that mainly is approached literally and cliche. When I began drawing the designs, I focused on designing the oyster shape as organic with enough information it was recognizable but not so much that it was a literal regurgitation of the real form.
I choose square silver wire for the construction, because I wanted the contrast of something organically shaped with geometric material. The four sides of the wire catch the light beautifully and highlight the detailed, hand formed shape of the oyster. The smooth, high shine finish is integral to the design, because the slick surface reflects the light to emphasize the form. Each wire oyster is crafted entirely by hand, which is a labor intensive and time consuming process. The wire shapes look delicate, but in fact they are very strong and durable due to the tension put into the wire from the hand forming process.
An oyster develops characteristics unique to the waters in which they grow, a metaphor for how place can shape an artist’s work and how Charleston has influenced my artwork. The design has elegant, clean lines that are based on the exterior contour of oyster shells found in Bull’s Bay, just north of Charleston. The shape and repetition of the units in several designs reference the continuous connection to the saltwater marshes surrounding Charleston. By interpreting the form to the essential shape, I came up with a completely original and new design.
Charleston has influenced my silversmithing design of home functional objects since I moved here from Charlotte fifteen years ago. It has been a fun, out of my typical element experience to design an entire jewelry collection inspired by a Charleston theme. As I am sure you can tell, I am very excited about this body of work and hope you will be as well!
To view and Shop the entire collection, visit the Jewelry category of my online store. Thank you for your interest in my work!
New Christmas Ornaments for Holiday 2019
New Christmas Ornaments for Holiday 2019
Kaminer Haislip has two new Christmas ornament designs for Holiday 2019! Continuing her design style of the silver silhouette, a Santa Hat and Stocking have been added to her stable of Christmas ornament offerings.
Silver Christmas ornaments make a wonderful, heirloom gift that will be cherished for years to come. Many lovely memories are made around the holidays and giving lasting gifts is a great way to commemorate past years of happy, family gatherings.
Starting a baby or child on a collection of silver Christmas ornaments is an outstanding idea, because by the time they are adults with a Christmas tree of their own they will already have a stunning array of beautiful ornaments to adorn their tree with. Many of Kaminer’s clients do just that as they were gifted annually each year with a silver ornament of their own and have a deep appreciation for the quality and sweet memories each one holds.
Both the Santa Hat and Stocking can be personalized with hand engraving, as can most of her silver Christmas ornaments. Shop the entire array of festive ornaments in this website store Christmas Ornaments category.
Schoonhoven Silver Award 2018 Travels to Museum in Freiberg, Germany
Schoonhoven Silver Award 2018 Travels to Museum in Freiberg, Germany
The international silver object (no jewelry) exhibition Schoonhoven Silver Award 2018, which Kaminer Haislip’s silver vessel Gradual Erosion is included, will travel to the City and Mining Museum in Freiberg, Germany. The exhibition began at The Netherlands Silver Museum and was on exhibition from December 2018 – May 2019.
The exhibition will be on display at the City and Mining Museum in Freiberg, Germany from June 29 – October, 2019. Learn more about their showing of this exceptional exhibition on their website.
Schoonhoven Silver Award 2018 includes a wide variety of silversmiths from all over the world and its goal was to inspire artists to test and explore the boundaries of their traditional art and craft. The Netherlands Silver Museum sought objects that bear a direct relationship with the museum’s policy of stimulating the exploration of new technologies and uses, and innovative art forms. Innovation, as envisioned in the Award’s present edition, centers on the rejuvenation of past, time-honored techniques and on the preservation of this heritage through injecting dynamic new life into the art of silversmithing.
The international Schoohnoven Silver Award exhibition began in 2001 and 2018 is the seventh edition of this unique silversmithing focused exhibition. Kaminer Haislip’s silver and ebony teapot Perched Flight was included in the 2009 exhibition Poetry in Silver, so she is excited and honored to exhibit again with her new silver vessel Gradual Erosion.
Gradual Erosion is currently available for sale, but will not be available for delivery until after the exhibition travels to two other European countries and ends in September 2019. Gradual Erosion will be returned to Kaminer Haislip after the exhibition and you can contact her directly for details at kaminer@kaminerhaislip.com.
To learn more about Gradual Erosion, visit its product page on this website’s Shop at https://www.kaminerhaislip.com/silver-art-jewelry-baby/gradual-erosion-silver/