The annual theme for this year’s AJDC design project was ‘explosion’, and designer-members’ interpretations ranged from the literal to the theoretical, including nature, war and peace, population, and creation, according to the group.

For example, Barbara Heinrich’s Before and After earrings portray the motion of seeds as they burst from their pods in gold and enamel, Michael Good’s gold and bronze flower petals surge from a fiery opal core, and Mark Schneider’s Big Bang portrays the theory in a gold pendant with gem encrusted stars erupting from a diamond nucleus.

The ‘Explosion’ projects will join a body of work that grows each year to raise awareness of jewelry as fine art to both the industry and the world at large. The AJDC’s annual projects are the subject of a coffee table style book titled ‘Brilliance’ published in 2008 by Lark Books and written by noted jewelry design business experts Cindy Edelstein and Frank Stankus.

 

Check out all the pieces in person at the JANY show, July 26-29, at Booth 918. Also see them online at http://www.ajdc.org/high_res/explosion2009.html.

 

 

Photos by Hap Sakwa

 

Barbara Heinrich, Before and After earrings

 

Mark Schneider, Big Bang pendant

 

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