Joan Tenenbaum: The Idea of Color Exhibit Catalog

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JOAN TENENBAUM� THE IDEA OF COLOR

EXHIBIT CATALOG PRESENTED BY

STONINGTON GALLERY



JOAN TENENBAUM� THE IDEA OF COLOR

A

bout a year ago I had the wonderful opportunity to study cloisonné enameling with a master, Merry-Lee Rae of Watsonville, California. During an intensive five day workshop, Merry-Lee presented four of us with her methodical approach to cloisonné using transparent enamels developed over 40 years of practice. When I returned home to my studio, I knew my work would be changed forever. I set about to reorganize a portion of my studio as an enameling station and to buy the tools and equipment I needed to pursue this technique. In January of this year after completing the work for my 2012 exhibit, I began the wondrous journey. Each year I pick a theme to focus on for my solo exhibition at Stonington Gallery. This year, since the medium itself was new to me, I decided to use that as my theme and to explore designing and working in color. For fifty-four years I have worked in different metals with shapes, textures and gemstones, but this year for the first time since elementary school I can color in my designs!! Planning the work for this year’s exhibit has been rather like doing a series of translations of my favorite stories yet again—visual translations into the luminous realm of color!!! Ever the linguist, I approached this year’s body of work with the same meticulous methodology as when I documented the Dena’ina language and traditional stories. From learning how to create sunrises to depicting sleeping snow geese, to enameling over my signature birch bark texture, to using color itself to set a mood or express a concept, this year has been an adventure in learning to be a colorist. When I embarked on this major new medium and techniques, I fully expected there to be a steep learning curve before I developed confidence or mastery. In fact, in retrospect, I believe this is what stopped me so many times before from studying cloisonné. I had always assumed that it would take me a full year of failures before I developed any successes. To my surprise, there was only a slight knoll, then the trail leveled out and here I am now with the prospect of being able once again to make anything I envision! BREATHE THE LIGHT I ENAMELED PENDANT COLOR STUDY 3 Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling Silver 1.75”h x 2.18”w x .25”d Sold

I cannot wait to see what the second year of cloisonné work will bring! -Joan Tenenbaum


BIRCH FOREST WOMAN II�� - REGAINING HER BEARINGS ENAMELED SPIRIT HELPER PENDANT 24K Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling Silver, Sterling 20” 1.6mm Round Snake Chain 1.75”h x 2.18”w x .25”d $1,850


BREATHE THE NIGHT I

ENAMELED PENDANT

NORTHERN LIGHTS I COLOR STUDY 2 Cloisonné Enamel, 14 & 18K Gold, Green Sapphire, Sterling & Fine Silver 2 .25 “h x 2.06”w x .4375”d Sold


SOME DREAMS MUST SLEEP -� SNOW GEESE I ENAMELED PENDANT 24K Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling Silver, Sterling 18” 2.8mm Flexible Omega Chain 1.94”h x 1.94”w x .38”d $2,575


CLOISONNÉ: Cloisonné is an enameling technique that places metal wires between compartments of powdered glass to make a design. The word cloisonné comes from the French cloison, or “compartment”.

Delicate strips

of gold, brass, silver, copper, or other metal wire are soldered to a metal plate in the shape of a design, and the resulting empty cells are filled with vitreous enamel paste. It is then fired, ground smooth, and polished. The result is a hard, smooth piece of glass that is durable and bright. The earliest surviving examples are six 13thcentury BC Mycenaean rings. The technique reached its peak in the West during the Byzantine Empire. Chinese cloisonné was widely produced during the Ming and Qing dynasties; in Japan it was popular in the Edo and Meiji periods. Excerpted from merriam-webster.com


TUNDRA PATTERNS I ENAMELED BRACELET COLOR STUDY

4

Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling Silver 1.38”h x 2.18”w x 5.88”d $2,150


BIRCH BARK I ENAMELED PENDANT COLOR STUDY 6 Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling and Fine Silver, Sterling 18” 1.5mm Round Omega Chain 2.75”h x 1.18”w x .31”d $1,725


A PEEK INTO JOAN’S PROCESS

1. Bunchberry pendant sketch

5. Wirework process begins

2. Preparing to engrave silver

6. Wirework complete


3. Engraving complete

7. After first color firing

4. Doming the silver

8. After third color firing



BUNCHBERRY ENAMELED EARRINGS - LARGE Cloisonné Enamel, Fine and Sterling Silver, 14K Posts .82”h x .82”w x .50”d $825

BUNCHBERRY NECKLACE 24K Cloisonné Enamel, Sterling & Fine Silver 1.94”h x 2 .86” w x .50”d $7,500


TULIP ENAMELED PENDANT Cloisonné Enamel, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Sterling 20” 1.6mm Snake Chain 1.12”h x .81”w x .37”d $675


RAVEN WING ENAMELED EARRINGS - PURPLE/SALMON 24K Cloisonné Enamel, Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, French Hooks 1.5”h x 1”w x .62”d $850


COURAGE ENAMELED EARRINGS

HONESTY ENAMELED EARRINGS

Sterling Silver, Enamel

Sterling Silver, Enamel

1.625” h x .56” w

1.68” h x 56” w

$340

$340


SERENITY ENAMELED EARRINGS WITH BEAD

CALM ENAMELED EARRINGS

Sterling Silver, Enamel

Sterling Silver, Enamel

1.68” h x 56” w

1.625” h x .56” w

$440

$340


HEADLANDS MOON I ENAMELED PENDANT 24K Cloisonné Enamel, 14K Gold, Fine Silver, Orange Sapphire, Sterling 18” Omega Chain, Sterling Silver 1.62”h x 1.31”w x .37”d $2,150


JOAN TENENBAUM A linguist, an anthropologist, an award-winning jeweler, an artist and a poet—Joan Tenenbaum fuses her technical, intellectual and creative abilities into jewelry that is imbued with beauty, spirituality and mystery. From the age of 13 Tenenbaum’s first love has been jewelry-making. However, her path led at first to an academic life. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research for her dissertation took her to a tiny village in Alaska where she lived with Athabaskan Indians and wrote a grammar and dictionary of their endangered language. She also compiled 24 stories for her book Dena’ina Sukdu’a: Traditional Stories of the Tanaina Athabaskans. She later lived with Yup’ik and Iñupiaq Eskimos in several other villages, teaching and coordinating programs for the University of Alaska. During all these years, she

such techniques as engraving, chasing, repoussé,

continued to make jewelry and never gave up

forging,

her dream to one day be a full-time artist. In 1990

gane, granulation, reticulation, damascene, keum

the artist moved to Washington State, where she

boo, anticlastic raising and stone setting to create

now focuses on her jewelry and teaching.

the fascinating textures, colors and contrasts that

roller

texturing,

foldforming,

mokume

narrate her work. Many of these pieces are part of Tenenbaum was already winning awards for her

a series exploring a theme, and each is individually

jewelry when she was in high school in Detroit,

hand made.

Michigan.

She has continued to add to her

frequently take the form of a mask or human figure,

knowledge and skills, studying in such varied

symbols of the spirituality in the cultures in which she

places as the University of Mexico, the Craft

lived, or are translations of ancient stories or artifacts.

Students League in New York, the University of

In these pieces she pays homage to some of the

Alaska and in Oregon with a private mentor. She

last remaining hunting societies, which she feels

has shared her knowledge by teaching jewelry

have been kept alive by their deep connection

at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, in

with the Arctic land and animals that support them.

workshops and with many private students.

Her pieces that speak of landscape and animals

Her native culture-inspired pieces

carry environmental messages. Throughout her work there is a poetry of feeling and distilled emotion which intertwines through

Her work is shown nationwide and has been

all the pieces as a sort of mystical leitmotiv. The

featured in nine books as well as in Ornament,

work itself consists of detailed, culture- and nature-

Lapidary Journal, Jewelry Artist, American Craft, Art

inspired wearable pieces that are hand fabricated

Jewelry, Creating Linus Jewellery, American Style,

using precious metals and gemstones. She uses

AJM, Niche and Metalsmith magazines.


TO VIEW MORE WORKS OR PURCHASE PIECES BY JOAN TENENBAUM PLEASE VISIT STONINGTON GALLERY

WWW.STONINGTONGALLERY.COM

Cover & Back Image:Some Dreams Must Sleep, Snow Geese I Enameled Pendant Stonington Gallery 125 South Jackson Street Seattle, WA 98104 206.405.4040 / art@stoningtongallery.com All Works and text by Joan Tenenbaum Photography by Doug Yaple and Ashley Genevieve Catalog Design by Nicole Bell Š Stonington Gallery 2013


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