International State of Practice 2021
International State of Practice is a webinar series created by the Community for Ethical Jewelry, addressing the urgency of sustainability in the field of Jewelry and Metalsmithing.
International State of Practice 2021
with special guest, Christina T Miller
Christina T Miller, founder of Sustainable Jewelry Consulting will help navigate attendees through the challenging discussion about sustainability. Students and new professionals, both conceptual makers and production jewelers will be informed and inspired to make work that aims to limit its social and environmental toll.
Christina will interview recent graduates and new professionals in the field of Jewelry and Metalsmithing, including Cassie Sun (China), Chelsea Nanfelt Rowe (USA), Clare Poppi (Australia), Brian Fleetwood (USA). In doing so, she will unpack some of the current challenges facing students and emerging professionals interested in responsible practice and the assumed sacrifices adjacent to working towards such a goal.
The event will include a question and answer session ensuring attendee’s will have the opportunity to get answers to their specific, and most burning questions.
Attendees will leave this event with a collection of resources (PDF), and will better understand what they can do, from tangible to radical actions, to transform the state of their practice.
Attendee’s can expect answers to questions such as:
What are the challenges facing students and emerging artists/jewelers interested in a sustainable practice?
What sacrifices will I have to make, to create a sustainable practice?
How do I find where jewelry making materials come from?
How do I choose suppliers?
Why should I care if I don’t use fine and precious materials?
What should I absolutely NEVER do?
What are realistic, tangible actions I can take?
What are radical, extreme actions I can take?
This event is FREE to attend!
You must register to receive event login links
Date: Thursday September 30th 2021
Time: 7PM-8:30PM EDT (23:00-00:30 UTC)
4:00pm, Los Angeles
5:00pm, Denver
6:00pm, Chicago
7:00pm, New York
8:00pm, Sao Paulo
Friday Oct 1, 12:00am London
Friday Oct 1, 1:00am, Berlin
Friday Oct 1, 2:00am, Moscow
Friday Oct 1, 7:00am, Beijing
Friday Oct 1, 8:00am, Tokyo
Friday Oct 1, 9:00 am, Brisbane
Where: Online via ZOOM
SPECIAL THANKS to UcIc Art Jewellery for helping to make this a globally accessible event.
@UcIcartjewellery
WeChat Official Account: UcIc艺术首饰
Event Presentors
Host: Christina T Miller
(she/her)
Christina T. Miller Consulting, LLC
Born on and living on Susquehannock land, previously known as Conestoga land.
Christina Tatiana Miller is an award-winning sustainable jewelry consultant providing strategy, guidance, and impact measurement to help jewelers make lives better.
Miller focuses her work on small and medium sized companies in the jewelry and fashion industries, educational programs and artists looking to be leaders in positive social and environmental action. She is also a professional speaker, workshop leader, community organizer, project manager, mentor, change maker and artist.
Among her many accomplishments are: founding Ethical Metalsmiths, launching Better Without Mercury and the Radical Jewelry Makeover, and being a volunteer for The Glossary Project. Miller also spearheaded organizing the first ever multi-jeweler Fairmined gold purchase in the US. Through a partnership between Ethical Metalsmiths and precious metals refiner, Hoover & Strong.
Christina will be in conversation with
-
(she/they)
Independent Artist
Yushan Cassie Sun is the founder of Solotus Jewelry Studio in Beijing China, a jewelry studio focused on making customized eco-friendly fine jewelry. She is a jewelry artist, metalsmith as well as a dancer. Born in Beijing, China, Cassie graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine art in Craft and Material Studies with a minor in Painting and Printmaking. She has worked in Seattle, USA as a bench jeweler and gallery assistant.
-
(he/him)
Assistant Professor, Studio Art
Institute of American Indian ArtsThe Institute of American Indian Arts is located within the unceded ancestral territory of Tewa peoples.
Brian Fleetwood is an interdisciplinary and collaborative jewelry artist based in Northern New Mexico. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Brian was drawn to jewelry as a format due to its unique ability to mediate between a body and the space it occupies. Informed by traditional stories, a background in biology and ecology, and lived experience on the autism spectrum, Brian uses experimentation with material and process to create work that aspires to behave in similar ways to living things.
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(she/her)
Independent Artist
Chelsea Nanfelt lives and works within the ancestral territory of the Manahoac peoples.
Chelsea Nanfelt-Rowe is a jeweler based in Virginia, USA. She communicates her obsession with contemporary design through her jewelry forms. Chelsea is a member of the Radical Jewelry Makeover Artist Project and Ethical Metalsmiths Emerging Jewelers.
-
(she/her)
Independent Artist
Clare Poppi lives and works within the ancestral territory of the Yuggera peoples.
Clare Poppi is an artist who lives and works in South-East Queensland, Australia and has recently completed a Master of Visual Art at Griffith University, where she undertook research into collaborations between jewellers and wearers with the aim of fostering meaningful relationships between the wearer and their jewellery collections. Her work critiques the fast fashion model and seeks to examine and improve the sustainability of jewellery production. She uses a combination of recyclable and biodegradable materials, adopting a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ mentality in her exhibition and production work.
International State of Practice is powered by our Education Committee
The Education Committee builds a community that champions the most sustainable practices in the metalsmithing and jewelry fields. Through questioning and interrogating accepted standards, we foster curiosity to find best practices. We disseminate this information and build calls to action through projects such as Radical Jewelry Makeover, International State of Practice, So Fresh + So Clean, and Criticalsmiths.
Education Committee 2021
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Alexandra Hart
(she, her, hers)
Advisory Board
Designer/maker/teacher
Alexandra Hart, metals artist/designer goldsmith
Sacramento, USAAlix's workshop is located on the unceded territories of the the Nissim-Pawenan, Nisenan, and Miwok peoples.
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Chelsea Rowe
(she, her, hers)
Education Committee Member
MFA Craft & Material Studies Graduate Student
Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts
Virginia, USAVirginia Commonwealth University sits on the ancestral territory of the Powhatan nation.
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Dr. Elizabeth Shaw
(she, her, hers)
Advisory Board
Head of Fine Art Program and Head of Jewellery and Small Objects Department at Queensland College of Art Griffith University, Queensland, AUS
Griffith University sits on the homelands of the Meeanjin, the traditional lands of the Turrbal, Jagera/Yaggera.
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Kathleen Kennedy
(she, her, hers)
Board Member
Radical Jewelry Makeover DirectorAssistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Department of Theater, Art, Graphic Design and Animation at Longwood University, Virginia, USA
Longwood University sits on the ancestral territory of the Lumbee, Monacan, and Occaneechi peoples.
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Lucy Louise Derickson
(she, her, hers)
Education DirectorAssistant Professor and Coordinator of the Jewelry and Metalsmithing/Craft Area at Montgomery College, Maryland, USA
Montgomery College sits on the ancestral territory of the Piscataway nation.
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Susie Ganch
(she, her, hers)
Advisory Board
Radical Jewelry Makeover DirectorAssociate Professor & Metal Area Head
Department of Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts, Virginia, USAVirginia Commonwealth University sits on the ancestral territory of the Powhatan peoples.