Portland Jewelry Symposium Announces Program and Speaker Lineup

The 11th annual Portland Jewelry Symposium in Portland, Ore., has released event details—and its speaker lineup—for its 2018 event, scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

The theme for this year’s symposium is “Craft Meets Technology: Keeping It Real in a Digital World,” and programming will seek to distill expert perspectives on how makers can navigate between art and science in their work.

“This is a theme we hear over and over again,” said Teresa Frye, founder of the Portland Jewelry Symposium, in a statement. “We are an industry immersed in art with a long tradition of skilled handcrafting that now requires the thoughtful use of technology. We seek to explore technology not as the primary driver of design and process, but rather as a very powerful tool in the jeweler’s toolbox.”

JCK news director Rob Bates will kick off the event at a dinner Sunday night with a keynote address that will include his forecast on where he sees the jewelry industry heading in increasingly tech-driven manufacturing and retailing landscapes.

Seminars and panels on Monday will cover topics such as high-tech casting methods and out-of-the-box approaches to digital marketing—featuring speakers including Andrea Hill, CEO of Hill Management Group; Teresa Frye, president of TechForm; and Shankar (Shan) Aithal, corporate metallurgist for Stuller.

Additionally, Ann-Marie Carey, a professor at Birmingham City University, will present her joint project with the Museum of London that demonstrates the digital reproduction of a 17th-century artifact from the Cheapside Hoard (a hoard of jewelry from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in 1912 by workmen using a pickax to excavate in a cellar at 30–32 Cheapside in London, according to Wikipedia).

The symposium will also feature two panel presentations that will leave time for audience Q&As with metallurgists and experts in the casting of 3D resins. Bench demonstrations, sponsored by Rio Grande, will feature Ann Cahoon from the North Bennet Street School.

(Image courtesy of Portland Jewelry Symposium)

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