Gallery poster (click to download)
Serious Bling: RJM at the Fuller Craft Museum
The RJM Artist Project exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA from February 15–April 5, 2020. Serious Bling presents a small group of international artists who were invited to dive more deeply into the motivations of the project by creating a larger body of work using donated jewelry left over from previous RJM drives. Co-director Susie Ganch led a gallery tour on March 7, as part of the museum’s Kick, Turn, Shine event. If you weren’t able to visit the exhibition, the Fuller has a virtual tour available.
VCU Workshop
In the Fall of 2018 students in the CRAF 302: Advanced Metal Fabrication: Mechanisms class at VCU participated in a mini RJM unit. Students focused on creating work through the lens of Radical Jewelry Makeover. They used only donated costume jewelry which had been left over from previous donation drives. Focusing on cold connection techniques, students created Madeover jewelry that considered its future in the jewelry supply chain. Keeping questions like “will a jeweler in the future be able to reuse the piece by melting down or disassembling it?” in the forefront of their minds while designing at the bench.
Pieces made in this workshop will be included in the next RJM installment exhibition at Lighthouse Art Center in South Florida. See gallery of finished work.
Participants: Shana Cave, Temple Glascock, Kyra Heron, Zouella Jarman, Dawoon Jeong, Thao Khia, Lindsey Mechuta, Michelle Moran, Naun Oh, Danny Peelish, Ines Sang, Rice Sangster, Kaylan Wiggans, Halle Williams, Beiya Yang
RJM at Central Virginia Middle Schools
Radical Jewelry Makeover recently collaborated with students at Brookland Middle School and Elko Middle School in central Virginia for a mini RJM event. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students researched the effects pit mining and fast fashion have on the people who work in those industries and the environment. Students used donated costume jewelry and simple cold connections to design and create new madeover pieces of jewelry. They also created print ads to promote recycling and RJM. Thank you to Jill Rich for inviting this project in to her class room.
Earth Day 2019
Radical Jewelry Makeover is hitting the road! We will be at Fort A.P. Hill on Thursday, April 18 in honor of Earth Day. For this fun filled information sharing day, RJM teamed up with Amazon Aid, a nonprofit working to protect the Amazon Rain Forest. They recently released an incredible documentary, River of Gold, highlighting environmental atrocities related to gold mining in the area. Students from area schools will be attending this one day event and we are looking forward to sharing our project with them!
Material Topics Symposium
In January 2019, RJM co-director Susie Ganch was keynote speaker at East Carolina University’s annual Material Topics Symposium. This year’s topic was “State of Adornment: Subject to Change.” In her presentation, Susie talked about the link between the future health of the field of jewelry with the materials that are used in the jewelry industry. It was also a way to discuss RJM and how our project seeks to highlight best practices.
During breakout sessions after her presentation, she discussed the technical philosophy of the project and introduced a design competition for all of the participants: to design and create a piece of jewelry using RJM materials. April 1 was the deadline and fantastic pieces were sent in (along with all of the leftover unused materials). See the gallery here.
Winners: Chelsea Nanfelt-Rowe, Hosanna Rubio, Kathryn Osgood
Honorable Mentions: Jera Lodge, Krissie Moore, Mary Kay Palazzo
The three winners each received a $100 Rio Grande gift certificate.
Thank you to all who participated! All the work will be included in the next RJM installment that will take place this fall at the Lighthouse Art Center in South Florida.