SHARE 14 - Mistakes Were Made

We just sent 21 rings to be cast! "Mistakes Were Made" rings are the result of our participation in SHARE 14!

SHARE is a bi-monthly event in Portland, Oregon that brings a small group of artists together to create in a shared space. We were excited to be asked to participate! AND we are excited about the outcome! We had two hours to create from the one-word prompt, CRASH.

“CRASH” sent us spiraling in a number of different directions. We had spent the week working on a product line for Valentine's Day, thus we both thought about crash related to love and romance. Then, we thought about opposing forces and what happens when they connect. We thought about objects crashing physically and conceptually. We thought about cars crashing, waves crashing and worlds crashing. We thought about noise and violence. Really, there were a lot of places we could go. Our resulting projects were two different studies that considered these themes.

Making wax models is the first step in casting metal jewelry. In our case, we often make rubber molds of existing jewelry and inject the molds with wax over and over again. Generally, we manipulate the original in some way after the model is cast in metal. It is not always possible to pull the perfect wax model out of a mold so we are left with many, many rejects. Some are near perfect, some are hardly recognizable and others are anywhere in between. They are all accidents. We used these accidental waxes to create a variety of forms and objects which will be cast in bronze and silver.

View additional images of waxes, studies, ect. made by us at SHARE 14:

bismuth=love

Love is not unlike science, wouldn’t you agree? Both are mysterious, inexplicable and uncontrollable… and each time we convince ourselves otherwise, they both make fools of us! With each impossibility that is defied a new reality is forged; leaving our perception of the world forever altered. We understand little about love or science, but we claim to know truths and realities. Our theories always prove faulty, and yet still we believe. For our faith we are rewarded with awe.

Bismuth, atomic number 83, is one billion years older than the universe. It is a metallic element with some interesting properties. When conditions are just right, impossibilities become realities. What better a metaphor for love? So for Valentines Day TOP has made (with much trial and error) a limited edition of these love crystals. There is no way to replicate these pieces with any exactness and in fact getting one at all could at times seem miraculous (just like love right?). Buy one for your sweetheart, nothing is quite like it. A diamond is forever, but bismuth is for way longer.

This is a limited edition project for lovers..................................
We made the metal bismuth crystals in our studio! Half of the crystals came out with color & half are white. Each piece is one of a kind and available for purchase through Supermarket for a limited time. http://supermarkethq.com/designer/3005/collection/3859

Summer Recap!

We would like to invite you to our studio this First Thursday (10/6/2011 5-8pm) for a Summer Recap!
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Our summer was busy, yet gratifying... at one point we had three shows happening simultaneously! We developed new work, organized two exhibitions, traveled to the East Coast and Germany, were written about in blogs and magazines... however we were SO busy we could not keep our own blog up to date! So Summer Recap! We are doing one massive update on the blog and on Thursday opening our studio to show a selection of work produced this summer.
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More information at our facebook invitation:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230998493625220

Talents at Tendence

Talents at Tendence
Frankfurt, Germany

The Opulent Project was honored to be sponsored by Messe Frankfurt and travel to Germany to represent jewelry design from the US. We spent a week exhibiting our work in the Talents section at Tendence trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Talents is an international platform for young, emerging designers to expose their designs and make connections with industry. Here we debuted a few new projects as well as a few additional pieces for our luxury based silhouette series!

COSTUME COSTUME

Sienna Gallery
Lenox, Massachusetts + Online
July 4 - August 31
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COSTUME COSTUME is a collection of work made by emerging contemporary art jewelers. It is an exploration of costume jewelry as subject; jewelry about jewelry.
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This project started last April with Sienna Gallery at the international exposition of Sculpture Object + Functional Art (SOFA) in New York. We invited the public to try on our jewelry collection and step into the Costume Costume photo booth for a souvenir photo-strip.
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Read the reviews from the SOFA NY project!
What's Happening? [Part Three] by Timothy McMahon
Notes on SOFA NY by Damian Skinner
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Artists involved include Sarah Abramson, Mikael Arsjö, Kate Bauman, Michael Dale Bernard, Thyra Bessette, Allyson Bone, Jenny Bradley, Raissa Bump, Sarah Kate Burgess, Alice Jee Chung, David Choi, Meg Drinkwater, Anne M. Fiala, Erin Gardner, Maricha Genovese, Anna Hinkes, Rory Hooper, Soyeon Kim, Courtney Kemp, Seohee Koh, Tara Locklear, Sarah Loertscher, Julia Elizabeth Louise, Edgar Mosa. Jimin Park, Mary Hallam Pearse, RT Peters, Katie Poterala, Cynthia Rohrer, Earl Ross, Leslie Skalin, Theresa Sterner, Monika Strasser, Kristi Sword, Islay Taylor, Melissa Tolar, Stephanie Tomczak, Ben Ulsh

Come Apart

Heidi Lowe Gallery
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
August 13 – September 17

to break apart, to break up.
to fragment - break or cause to break into pieces become separated into pieces or fragments
burst - break open, split, come open suddenly and violently, as if from internal pressure.
bust - break open or apart suddenly and forcefully.
smash - break suddenly into pieces, as from a violent blow.
break - destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.
snap, crack - break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension.
crush - become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure.

Come Apart featured a selection of works by T.O.P. The work in this show explored various forms of fragmentation visually, physically and/or conceptually. Wall Tile is the second collaborative piece produced by Meg Drinkwater and Erin Gardner that explores adornment related to the body and interior space. The viewer is invited to participate by pulling jewelry from the wall to adorn themselves while at the same time revealing a pattern in the negative space that remains.

Check out the 2Modern Blog review!

COSTUME COSTUME Part II at Sienna Gallery

July 4 - August 31, 2011

COSTUME COSTUME Part II Guest curated by Arthur Hash COSTUME COSTUME (an opulent project) is a collection of work made by emerging contemporary art jewelers. It is an exploration of costume jewelry as subject; jewelry about jewelry.

We are thrilled to have Arthur Hash curate a selection of new designers and artists to expand the COSTUME COSTUME collection! View select pieces online or model entire collection in the Costume Costume Photobooth at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Current and past artists include Sarah Abramson, Mikael Arsjö, Kate Bauman, Michael Dale Bernard, Thyra Bessette, Allyson Bone, Jenny Bradley, Raissa Bump, Sarah Kate Burgess, Alice Jee Chung, David Choi, Meg Drinkwater, Anne M. Fiala, Erin Gardner, Maricha Genovese, Anna Hinkes, Rory Hooper, Soyeon Kim, Courtney Kemp, Seohee Koh, Tara Locklear, Sarah Loertscher, Julia Elizabeth Louise, Edgar Mosa, Jimin Park, Mary Hallam Pearse, RT Peters, Katie Poterala, Cynthia Rohrer, Earl Ross, Leslie Skalin, Theresa Sterner, Monika Strasser, Kristi Sword, Islay Taylor, Melissa Tolar, Stephanie Tomczak, Ben Ulsh

 Sienna Gallery debuted the project last April at SOFA NY where we installed a photobooth. This format provided visitors with an experience outside of the typical museum-like presentation of jewelry and objects at SOFA. We encouraged people to have fun interacting with our jewelry. Viewers instantly became wearers, modeling our jewelry for a printed souvenir photo-strip. And in some sense the wearer became a "collector" and jewelry became "collected" through physical printed image and solidified through social media.