February 2012

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Jewelry such as this is available at the gift store for the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois.

By Clare Adrian
ewelry is small but it’s mighty. Its place of prominence in retail outlets has traditionally been the glass case, long revered, itself, as the most effective and safe harbor of personal ornamentation. To veer off though, from the angular motif, and literally get out of the box, art museum store directors frequently perch jewelry atypically, to match the mood of a museum exhibit or just to draw attention to wearable art for the sake of novelty.

As temporary exhibits travel, jewelry makers are often commissioned to craft body ornamentation in a style that will compliment the subject of the show. For Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon, now showing at the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington, store director Kristie Worthey requested large chunky necklaces with a Kahlo flair reserving for them, a special setting, hung on a tree-like structure with an ash, white bark appearance.

“Necklaces hung from the limbs of the small tree become the leaves,” Worthey said. If appropriate, she may add interesting bracelets in the same theme. Another time, more delicate strands of necklaces appear to be glistening icicles. “Just seeing them hanging all together catches the eye, customers want to see them more closely, and try them on,” commented Worthey, who likes to showcase select pieces and venture away from the traditional 6 foot glass display case. “I might hang them from neon tubes. We’re constantly experimenting with ideas that have not been thought of to create the nature of a whole concept. It’s like having my own gallery. I get to explore all the options.”

Worthey’s design concepts augment the contemporary style of jewelry produced by the Pacific Northwest artists highlighted in the store, 10 of whom are top sellers and contributing to a significant 11 percent of overall sales last year. Especially popular are Teresa Owens’ found object/button jewelry and Susan Goodwin’s semi-precious stone earrings, which, said Worthey, “"We can’t keep on the shelves." Minnesotan Deborah Bushinski’s distinctive Nordic design in natural wood appeals to the large Scandinavian demographic in the Puget Sound area and the novelty of Israeli Hadas Shaham’s concrete jewelry and wire rings spike interest. The museum also houses a retrospective collection from Northwest artist Ramona Solberg.

Necklaces and a bracelet with an African theme.

Exhibits influence the type of populace that streams through museum stores. Worthey notices large numbers between the ages of 30 and 60. Many visit when Mary Lee Hu’s gold wire mesh choker is shown. A permanent collection showpiece, it will be part of the upcoming Sparkle Then Fade Exhibition, a commentary on the transitory nature of celebrity. The focus is on various accoutrements such as the diamonds inlaid in teeth braces of various hip hop artists. Worthey is commissioning artists to render pieces that carry the message.

An eclectic mix of contemporary and modernfashioned jewelry pervades the three Museum of Modern Art Design Stores in New York City. Merchandise in the Soho district store caters to a young hip clientele. Whereas, the jewelry in the Design and Bookstore in the museum and the other across the street, is geared toward the older female museum membership.

Precious stones are not a component of the selections. Rather sterling silver and glass dominate the necklaces, bracelets, brooches, pins and watches representative of the modern theme of the museum. Beaded necklaces by New York designer Patricia von Musulin that incorporate pearls, rock crystals, turquoise, jade or marcasite with a sterling silver clasp attract many buyers.

A perennial best seller is MoMA's Frank Lloyd Wright jewelry collection. Wright’s geometric and organic patterns which he incorporated into decorative elements of his architecture were inspirational to the craftsmanship.

The work of Satya Scainetti and Beth Torstrick, entirely handcrafted, is also hard to pass up. As described on the MoMa Web site catalog, each pure silver bead is individually hammered eight times, creating multidimensional and unique faceting.

Most of designer jewelry is displayed under glass and sales clerks are readily available to show individual pieces as requested. Inexpensive rings, under $25 are accessibly arranged in a clear box bin that sits on top of the jewelry case. A bin at the front store cash register is brimming with the perfect impulse item, $6 snow globe rings, filled with sparkly iridescent snowflakes that swirl about when shaken. Public relations manager for MoMa retail, Marisa Jones, noted the novel rings have shown to be well-placed for that last minute sale.

In the 1930s, William Sprawling spurred a silversmithing movement in Taxco, a former silver mining city in Guerrero, Mexico. He trained locals in the art, which has become the lifeblood of the community and a way of life. Well-designed pieces from the area comprise much of the jewelry selections in the Chicago, Illinoisbased National Museum of Mexican Art, Tienda Tzintzuntzan store. Turquoise and onyx stones are often embedded in the Taxco necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

African jewelry spilling out of a display box.

Manager Raquel Rios has noticed that middle age women frequent the jewelry section of the store and scan the three glass cases for the Taxco silver seal. To spark interest, she often displays jewelry to harmonize with folk art. Hanging a piece from the arm of a clay figure draws attention to, perhaps, one chosen to reflect a museum exhibit, such as that of Frida Kahlo.

Leather or copper bracelets from Kenya, beaded necklaces and earrings from Nigeria, and the beadwork of South Africa, are the major categories of jewelry sold at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois. Each is distinctively related to the country of origin. The most colorful and therefore, most popular, especially with children, said store manager, Loretta Johnson, is the South African beadwork. “The children love it, though women of all ages enjoy it, too,” she noted.

The jewelry in the store is exemplary of the theme of the museum and covers the entire continent of Africa. The glass case is the display mode of choice. Johnson and staff box the pieces to be displayed because the inventory arrives from the continent bunched together in plastic bags.

Jewelry must be handcrafted by the artists whose work is represented in the Louisville-based Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Gallery Store, where annual sales reach $500,000 overall. The prevailing 30 plus year old customers who tend to be most interested in jewelry are pleased to find flame-worked glass beads, bead weaving, metal-smithed silver, copper and aluminum pieces displayed attractively in a number of ways on any given day. In addition to the usual jewelry encasement, some necklaces are draped over velvet neck forms. Following a renovation that increased the size and visibility of the Gallery Shop, director of sales, David McGuire had his resourceful eye out for innovative materials from the construction site. He recycled the blond leftover wood into square boxes with glass lids. People respond favorably to the individually enclosed jewelry pieces resting on a bed of either white rice or black beans spread inside, McGuire said. “The jewelry stands out and the rice absorbs moisture, cutting down on polishing.”

One of the best selling collections is by metal fabricator Lona Northerner, who occasionally adds stones she has cut, ground and polished into the shape and sheen she desires. Hers and other Kentucky artisans will have their work featured during the annual Holidazzle winter holiday show.

The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California is soon to have a jewel of a store, contained in the museum addition that will open June 10th. Designed by Mexican architect Manual Rosen, the semi-circular glass front store gives the allusion of an open accordion. “It will be a challenge to merchandise,” said manager Donna Malloy, who will have no problem doing so if operations continue in the current, thorough vein, which includes traveling to each of 19 Latin American countries to obtain their representative folk art.

“We pride ourselves on unique merchandise, said Malloy, “traveling to pick it out, so it doesn’t look like anywhere else.” The result is a rich mix of artistry. From Guatemala are paper mache fruit-shaped nuggets on beaded necklaces, reminiscent of Carmen Miranda adornments. Hand-painted, ceramic donutshaped discs on silk cords handmade in a small factory in Peru, support a local school. In addition, the factory produces very small barrel-shaped multicolor beads strung on elastic and multicolor strands of small beads from one quarter inch to 2 1/2 inches wide. Indian patterned beaded bracelets are brought back from Columbia, and from Mexico, unique Taxco sterling silver pieces. Necklaces made from huayruru seeds originate in Peru and from Brazil, the Solange resin line, resembling multicolored rock candy, which happens to be the number one line in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The rich assortment of jewelry is viewed by travelers from around the world. The tourism industry and young artists are the store’s main customers. Correspondingly, the top sellers are price-point related, either over $500 or under $6.

Currently, the store is in a temporary location. Merchandise in the jewelry category is displayed on Tbars, necks and elements inside glass cases. As the new store grand opening approaches, Malloy anticipates featuring coral and turquoise pieces, sparkling in the full wall-size windows, on shelving that will span a height of 18 feet, no small feat to maneuver.