SIERAAD Art Fair's Page

People wear jewellery for very different reasons – from habit or from a form of self- respect, when one has to dress for a certain occasion, but also in memory of a beautiful moment or a certain person. Jewellery is also worn simply because one is happy to be alive, from the need for something new and in anticipation of things to come. Just as people wear jewellery for different reasons, they also differ in taste and physical appearance. Some people can spend more money on jewellery than others. But where is a contemporary selection to be found that, as far as diversity is concerned, surpasses all other forms of presentations in the way of ideas, materials and price range?

SIERAAD was set up in 2001 as a platform for people who have chosen a fantastic profession in which they can realize all their ideas but who, being self- employed, have only limited possibilities to put their work on the market. The need for such a platform is apparent from the growing number of participants from many different countries who would like to present themselves. This year the work of independent jewellery designers from more than ten countries will be on show. The direct confrontation with the public does not only serve a necessary, economic purpose – it may also result in some feedback regarding the content of their work, which in turn may lead to new developments.
Realizing this edition of SIERAAD Art Fair means that the ideal form of the fair has been realized at the same time. With its characteristic outline and beautiful open space the former gasholder on the premises of the Amsterdam WesterGasfabriek is the right spot with the right atmosphere. The location is spacious enough to create an individual place for each designer while still maintaining the coherence. The fair displays jewellery in all its manifestations and furthermore, presents a small number of goldsmiths that design silver plate.

What goes for vases or paintings goes for jewellery as well - enough is never really enough. Obligations and restrictions are self-imposed values. What really matters is the joy that can be experienced from a work of art. Apart from the wealth of forms and colours, what is especially important are the associations one may have with it and the way one can live with it. That is why the fair is just as interesting for people who seldom buy jewellery as for collectors of these items of cultural significance. Unique objects in a variety of price ranges are to be found here as well as jewellery made in small numbers.
By means of a few centrally located presentations the range of the concept ’jewellery’ is shown. This year it will be an exhibition in which jewellery designers write history, entitled “Medieval Mystery solved”. Jewellery can also symbolize loss and sorrow, which becomes clear from the impact of “Bomb Wreck Jewellery”. As organisers of this fair, Astrid Berens and Maarten Bodt are aware that an increase in new talent is crucial for the profession of jewellery design. Therefore, this year they offer space to students of the section Jewellery & Product Design of the College of Arts in Maastricht. Using new computer technology jewellery designers associated with the Formativ from Düsseldorf make unexpected possibilities and jewellery tailored to the individual visible and tangible. For those who want to increase their knowledge about jewellery there will also be a stand with books on this subject.
In short, everybody can find something to his liking on this edition of SIERAAD Art Fair, if only, for starters, a personal remembrance of this confrontation with the many-sidedness of contemporary jewellery.
Marjan Unger, art historian and publicist.

SIERAAD, International Jewellery design Art Fair,
This platform provides an opportunity for minor, independent artists to become less dependent on third parties. The platforms and their resulting activities also contribute to the objective of SIERAAD to give jewellery as wearable objets d’art a prominent place in the history of art and culture.

SIERAAD is the international platform for contemporary jewellery artists.
As a platform SIERAAD shows the choice of the artists and tries to bring about a ‘perfect match’ between the ideas of the artist and the way in which the customer wants to express himself through jewellery. More than ever, jewellery has become a personal expression of the ideas of artist and wearer.
SIERAAD is a logical continuation of vocational training colleges, academies and polytechnics.
SIERAAD offers jewellery artists a chance of entering into a dialogue with a very wide public. Both at home and abroad SIERAAD organizes platforms where contemporary jewellery artists may expand their market for products and ideas.

Current situation:
• Increasingly, people want to express their individuality and personality, and they are prepared to go a long way to achieve this.
• A growing interest in and larger budgets for individual and unique pieces of jewellery.
• The art of jewellery is on the eve of the development which the applied arts in Holland have already seen. Dutch design: the rise of Droog Design, Moooi and the Eindhoven Design Academy. The art of jewellery is taking the next step in the value chain: from craftsmanship to art.
• enables jewellery designers to be self-supporting.
• creates platforms for jewellery designers to present and sell their own work to a wide public.
• promotes the knowledge and appreciation of jewellery design in the world of business, among private persons and civil authorities.
• Galleries, do not contribute sufficiently to the latter’s means of support.
• aims to build bridges between history, tradition and today’s world.

SIERAAD = THE PERFECT MATCH

• Thé moment of exposure for beginning and established jewellery designers
• Once a year it brings everyone together: stylists, retailers, collectors, gallery owners, curators, artists, teachers and consumers
• 83 – 90 standholders
• Almost 6,600 visitors
• SIERAAD sees to all communication, marketing and public relations, on line and in print.
• Designers need not turn over a sales percentage to SIERAAD, as in the case of galleries.
• More then 80% of the standholders makes a good profit.
----------------------------------------------------------
NEW TRADITIONAL JEWELLERY GROWS INTO A BIENNIAL EVENT
THEME INTERNATIONAL DESIGN CONTEST AND EXHIBITION IN 2010: TRUE COLOURS

Starting with the fourth edition, New Traditional Jewellery (NTJ) will become a biennial event.
The three preceding editions of this international design contest and the ensuing travelling exhibitions have been proof of the success of this project and its right to exist. The quality requirements as to the nature and scope of and entries for the event are becoming increasingly strict. In order to meet these requirements in a professional manner NTJ will become a biennial design contest.
The next edition will be in 2010. For the design contest and exhibition 2010 the technical jury of New Traditional Jewellery (NTJ) has chosen the theme ‘True Colors’ because literally as well as figuratively this theme offers considerable scope for inspiration.
The 2010 theme, Showing your true colors means that you show what your real attitudes and qualities are.
You can approach True Colors from a social perspective; society is full of topical colour coding.
Other examples may be found in heraldry, folklore and science.
True Colors refers to colors and pigments. Over the centuries the palette of art history has been determined by precious mineralogical and biological pigments that were obtained from ground semi-precious stones, processed metals, and earth, seeds and plants – materials that did not always bear the test of time; in the course of time white lead e.g. turned black.
The link between the theme ‘True Colors’ and contemporary jewellery design is obvious. From time immemorial the significance and appreciation of jewellery have pre-eminently been determined by colour.
From the use of gold or silver to enamels and mineralogical and biological stones: colour is a language. In the seventies and eighties it became manifest how rich this language is. The application of textiles and Perspex in jewellery led to a new form language and use of colour – an important stage in the emancipation of contemporary jewellery design.
True Colors is about the history, meaning, value, magic and power of the language of colour.

Color says something about status and social strata.
Color can scream, curse, emancipate, help, condemn and segregate.
Color is a statement.
General conditions:
• Entries for ‘True Colors’, New Traditional Jewellery 2010 must be wearable. Installations and objects that do not logically tie in with the body are outside the scope of this contest.
• Entries must be inspired by a historical or traditional piece of jewellery.
• The source of inspiration should be made known and illustrated by means of a photo, and the translation into a new ornament be explained.
• Entries should add a new chapter to an old story. The conditions for this design contest (new shapes evolving out of existing, threatened and/or lost traditions) do not imply a figuration. On the contrary. The jury wants to emphasize that the inspiration, and not the design per se, should be based on a past.
• Entries should meet all criteria.

The importance of NTJ
For every edition of New Traditional Jewellery an inspiring theme is chosen.
Participants are challenged to reshape historical or traditional jewellery. They do not submit just their design - they must also submit pictures and information about the historical or traditional ornament on which their concept is based.
This is the characteristic added value of NTJ: past and present are bridged by artists in a very personal way.
A technical jury selects fifty to seventy designs which are on show in an exhibition during the SIERAAD fair, where the winners of NTJ are also officially announced.
When taking part in this contest, jewellery designers from all over the world make use of a new platform where they give shape to their vision of a tradition and a theme. This design contest and the ensuing travelling, international exhibition have become a showcase for developments in contemporary jewellery in the new millennium.

---------------------------------
Foundation Art in Business is the initiator of New Traditional Jewellery. Its objective is the promotion of knowledge and appreciation of the art of jewellery in the business world, among private individuals and civil authorities. In this ways FAB wants to bridge the gap between artists and buyers and between tradition and today’s world.

The technical jury NTJ 2008 with the theme ‘Intimacy’ consisted of:

Christel Trimborn, Germany, journalist ; Carin Reinders, director CODA Museum Apeldoorn; Isabella van den Bos, collector of jewellery art ; Herman Hermsen, Jewellery artist and Professor of Jewellery and Product Design at the Düsseldorf Higher Vocational Training College; Astrid Berens, Director SIERAAD; Marjan Unger, Art historian and author of many articles on jewellery and other fields of design; Theo Smeets, university of applied sciences – trier dept. gemstone & jewellery design campus idar-oberstein

The themes of the preceding editions of NTJ are:
“Traditional costumes and Folklore”
“Symbols of Faith”
“Intimacy”