All About Acrylic Paints...

By Nancy Noel May

Did you Know???

Acrylic paints were first discovered in 1859, but not commercially produced until the late 1920's.

I started using acrylics in the 1960's, (I am really dating myself here) when I received a beautiful set housed in an aluminum case for my sixteenth birthday. I was thrilled! I had been painting with an artist neighbor using oils since I was eight. I continued using acrylics and/or oils throughout college. I switched to oils as my medium of choice about ten years ago. The decision to change back to acrylics exclusively was made when the fumes from the oils and the harshness of the chemicals began to bother me. I don't think I'll ever go back. I love to paint with acrylics, the fast drying time and the ease of use are an integral element of my painting style. The majority of my painting is done in my studio, but there is a challenge in plein air painting, (painting outside) in that the paint wants to dry a little too quickly, especially on a warm sunny day. This can be overcome with adding retarding gels to the palette. In fact there are a many new additive gels and mediums on the market to create whatever style paint you prefer. Whether you like thin glazes to thick impastos, acrylics can achieve it.

I invite you to consider painting with acrylics. There are several local sources for obtaining paints, brushes, and canvas. It doesn't take much investment to get started. The key words here are "Get Started", just hop in and go. I hope you will start to create and enjoy it as much as I do. It will feed your soul.

Blood Diamonds and Conflict. What does that mean?

By Nicole Wilkinson

By Nicole Wilkinson
The term "blood diamond' refers to money gained from the mining of diamonds that is used to purchase guns and support war. Blood diamonds, often called conflict diamonds, are mined in war torn African countries by rebels to fund their conflict. The rebels grossly abuse human rights, often murdering and enslaving the local populations to mine the diamonds.

Since the production of the movie, "Blood Diamond" starring Leonardo DeCaprio, the awareness of diamonds mined in conflict has increased. There are many ways to insure your diamond is 'conflict free'.

1. Conflict diamonds come with guarantees. Since 2004, any diamond that is conflict free and doesn't aide war is documented and should come with a certificate or a guarantee from your jeweler.

2. Research when purchasing a loose diamond. "A diamond is a girl's best friend", and you want to make sure your purchase was a purposeful one. Canadian diamonds are almost ALL conflict free. If purchasing over the web, go with a reputable Canadian company that has been in business for many years, or work with a local jeweler, not a national chain. They are more likely to be able to trace the source of all of the stones in a piece of jewelry or loose stones purchased.

3. ASK! This is your $$. This is your big purchase. Make sure you make the right choice. If a jeweler cannot guarantee the stone is conflict free, that is ok. They are being honest and want to help you with your purchase. They WILL know the right places where they can find your perfect stone.

Feel free to stop in to Spectrum Art & Jewelry where we can order your conflict free stones today!

The Elements of Design by Nancy Noel May

From the Painter's Brush...

Did you know?

The basic elements of design include the use of line, color, shape, texture and value. These are the building blocks of a work of art.

Did you ever wonder why you are drawn to a certain piece of art? There is an infinite variety of styles and combinations of these elements. All five elements will be represented, but some artists tend to focus on one or two of these elements to be dominant. Do you always head for the brightly colored pieces or the softer, more muted colors; strong lines or soft focus images?

Most of us have a preference to certain styles of work. Knowing these basic elements you define what might have you define what attracts you over and over to similar styles of work. These same elements appear in your home furnishings and in fact, can be of great help in selecting items for your home. Do you like rough, nubby texture or silk smooth, strong lines or soft edges, bold or muted color, these are questions that can be answered by studying the basic elements of design.

Let's explore the basic elements of design.

1. Line- Line defines shape and divides space. Lines can vary in width, length, and direction.

2. Color- Color pertains to a particular hue. Colors give the illusion of depth: closer objects are more intense while distant objects appear muted. Color is the most persuasive element, it can show emotions or mood.

3. Shape- Everything has shape, they can be geometric, such as circle, oval, square, rectangle or triangle-or shapes can be organic or free form.

4. Texture-Texture refers to the feel or look of a surface. There are many kinds of texture-rough, smooth, soft, coarse, shiny or velvety-to name just a few. Texture created highlights and shadows.

5. Value- The element that pertains to the relative lightness and darkness of color in an image. Usually dark values appear to come forward and light values tend to recede.

Once again, I invite you to look at the artwork in your home, or visit Spectrum Art and Jewelry. See if you can identify these five elements in a piece of art. The more you study a painting and try to understand the basic elements of design, the more enjoyment you will have in appreciating your art collection.

The History of Adornment: Jewelry Metals and Gems

By Star Sosa

From the time that man began to clothe himself, humans have been adorning their bodies. The first jewelry was created from bone and shell. Colorful feathers were incorporated as well. Many early cultures used beads as currency. To some extent, precious metals and gemstones are still considered currency today. Medieval Alchemists spend years seeking the secret of turning lead into gold as a way to discovering the secrets of life.

Jewelry is a universal theme throughout all cultures. Every culture in every time has had some form of relationship to jewelry and adornment. To some it was purely functional such as wearing a brooch to close your cloak. In many cultures it was devotional such as the rosary or crucifix. In Africa, the women of some tribes would wear fabulous gold jewelry displaying all of their family’s wealth. Today it is often viewed as a statement, of status, of wealth, of personal commitment, or purely for fashion and display. As cultures became more sophisticated and began working with metals, jewelry was crafted from silver, gold, bronze, and other materials. The ancient jewelry maker typically used pure gold or silver, valued for their color, purity, and malleability.

Today we alloy gold and silver, adding other elements to enhance or modify their appearance and performance. 14k gold contains only about 50% gold and the balance is made up of other base metals such as nickel, iron, and copper. 18k is approximately 75% pure and 24k is considered pure. There are different colors of gold now available which are created by adding specific metals such as platinum or silver to make white gold, copper to make rose gold, and iron to give it a blue tinge.

Sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver with a bit of copper added to increase its strength and durability. However this also makes it tarnish as the molecules of copper oxidize. New alloys have been developed that maintain the white color of pure silver, increasing its strength and harness while dramatically reducing its tendency to tarnish. “Argentium Silver” is created by adding the element Germanium to Silver. It makes a very white alloy, tarnish free and harder than Sterling. This alloy is becoming very popular and is likely to become as mainstream as Sterling.

When talking about today’s jewelry you must include platinum. It is extremely rare, much rarer than gold. In fact, according to “PreciousPlatinum.com”: if you were to pour all the world’s Platinum into an Olympic swimming pool it would only cover your ankles (The world’s gold would fill more than three swimming pools). Platinum is used in a very pure form, 95% pure versus the 75% for 18k as we discussed before. Another wonderful quality about Platinum is that it is vary pliable. In fact, one gram of Platinum can be drawn out to produce a fine wire over one mile long. Platinum has uses in industry as well, most notably catalytic converters and pacemakers.

Another metal you will be hearing more about is Palladium. Used in alloying white gold and in the electrical industry, Palladium is a metal in the Platinum family. It shares many of the characteristics of Platinum but is not as expensive. Today’s price for Platinum is $969/oz and the price for Palladium is $262. It’s also less dense, making the same item of jewelry dramatically less expensive in Palladium than in Platinum. So for the price conscious, it is a great alternative to Platinum while still getting a very rare and pure metal. It’s a superior alternative to white gold because of its fine white color and greater malleability for setting gemstones.

Let’s move on to gems:
We know that the ancient Egyptians included gemstones in their jewelry including Amethyst, Turquoise, and Lapis Lazuli. They also incorporated enamel or glass into many of their artworks. Subsequent cultures utilized gems in much of their jewelry, initially in their raw crystal form and eventually cut into cabochons and later the faceted and polished shapes we are more familiar with today.

Throughout human history, gems and crystals were thought to have mystical and metaphysical properties. For instance, Amethyst was believed to prevent intoxication when dropped in your glass of wine. Opals were thought to have magical qualities. They were also the favored gem for wedding jewelry in Victorian times. Pearls have long been considered symbols of harmony, purity, and wisdom. The Romans believed that Peridot would help dreams become a reality and that they would drive away the evil spirits of the night.

One thing I’d like you to come away with today is the knowledge that there are so many gem options out there. There is so much more to life than rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. It’s amazing the colors found in our natural world and now such an incredible variety is available for your consideration in jewelry.
Choices for red gemstones include gorgeous options like spinels and garnets. For pinks you can turn to sapphires and tourmalines. Purple gems include the ever popular Amethyst but also purple sapphire, and purple garnet. The varieties of green gemstones are widely varied including Tsavorite Garnet which is a bright grassy green, and vivid Peridot which is brighter more yellow-green. Tourmaline offers many shades of gorgeous green color. While in the blue family you have Iolite and Tanzanite.

What’s really fascinating is how varied many gemstone species really are. Did you know that sapphires come in every color of the rainbow except red? When a sapphire is red, it’s a ruby! Also, you may not know that garnets come in multiple colors ranging from deep red, wine red, purple, orange and bright green.

In contemporary America, our relationship with jewelry is both very simple and very complex. To many people the only item of jewelry they will ever own or wear is their wedding ring. To others, it is a vital necessity, collecting colored gems and jewelry as accessories to every occasion and fashion ensemble. Watch MTV and note the huge, diamond- encrusted pendants worn by rappers and hip-hop artists. It’s clear to see that they view jewelry as a statement, loud and clear, of their success.

Today jewelry is also complicated some by political and ethical issues: conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, the exploitation of gem miners in Columbia and Tanzania, the ecological effects of mining metals and gems or harvesting natural wonders such as coral, shell and pearls. The high intrinsic value of precious metals and gems has been subject for conquests of entire cultures. The Americas were “discovered” when Europeans went exploring, seeking gold, spices, and gems. The existing cultures of these continents were soon overwhelmed by the world’s desire for their precious resources.
Once you acquire these rare and precious materials, then comes the challenge of creating something wonderful from it. Crafting jewelry requires not only an artistic eye but also knowledge of metallurgy, engineering, geometry, and physiology. You have to know what the capabilities of the materials are, how to properly balance a design and how to make it comfortably wearable. Not to mention, the possibility of working to meet a limited budget.

Here at Spectrum Art & Jewelry, we can work with your materials or find them for you. We design the project with you starting with an interview to determine your style preferences and your lifestyle, as it pertains to wearability and durability. Then we hand craft the item, making your jewelry fantasy a reality!

Interview with Gallery Artist: Nancy Noel May

This week I had the pleasure to interview artist, Nancy Noel May. Many of you may not know that Nancy wears many hats. She is the gallery manager here at Spectrum, is a painter, a jewelry designer, our resident pearl-knotter, kayaker, ballroom dancer, enjoys water aerobics, is a member of the Wrightsville Beach United Methodist Church, walks the 'loop' weekly with a friend, loves photography, is a member of a book club and loves to cook. I asked her when she slept and she laughed! Believe it or not Nancy has to get in at least 8 hrs of sleep each night. She doesn't watch much television, listens to books on tape, and is always very socially active.

Nancy has been painting since she was 8 years old. She says she feels there is an images inside of her that have to get out. There are paintings in her mind that are completed and she transfers them to canvas. Traveling gives Nancy the most inspiration. She is drawn to Mediterranean countries and those hot vibrant colors that go with them! Wrightsville Beach and Italy have been her favorite places to capture in a composition.

This year, Nancy will be traveling to Palm Springs, CA with a fellow Spectrum artist , Mandy Johnson. There they will take a 1 week painting workshop. Nancy is always growing, constantly learning and expanding her horizons. Recently, she has been working on gessoed 300 lb watercolor paper which is easy to travel with to inspirational locations. This way she can paint a la prima, or "in one sitting" in plein aire. Nancy will also travel with Star this year on their annual trips to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show as well as to Paris and Basel, Switzerland where they will be attending an international jewelry show. With Nancy's current studies of color, texture, unique canvas materials, and with her history with warm, rich colors; what will come out of her images of Paris, I can only imagine.

Pearls and Global Warming

(Taken from Modern Jeweler Magazine Online)

Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Pearl farmers live in some of the world’s most beautiful places: sheltered lagoons with pristine clean waters and some of the world’s highest biodiversity. But this closeness to nature also means that they are also one of the most vulnerable industries to climate change. At this year’s GIA Gemfest in Basel, which featured leading pearl producers from all over the world, the topic of the threat of global warming to the quantity and quality of pearl production was one of the interesting topics raised. I talked to Jacques Branellec of Jewelmer, the leading producer of South Sea cultured pearls in the Philippines, and Martin Coeroli, the managing director of Perles de Tahiti, about climate change and the possible impact on pearls. As you can see in my video on Pearls and Global Warming, South Sea pearls and Tahitian pearls may be even rarer in the years to come. The threat is most acute in the tropical producing regions near the equator, where even a one or two degree rise in sea temperature can result in oyster mortality. Typhoons, always a threat to pearl farms, may cause additional damage. It really brings home how pearl farming is an amazing organic industry: a clean and sustainable source of employment in some of the world’s most beautiful places that actually improves the habitat for marine life in the surrounding areas.

The History of New Year Resolutions

To all of our Spectrum Friends, Happy New Year!

The first day of a calendar year is one of the world’s oldest holidays. The Babylonians are known to have celebrated the new year approximately 4,000 years ago, and this ancient civilization is credited by some with originating an annual tradition still going strong: The New Year’s resolution. The first day of a the Babylonian year was considered to be March 23rd, and a common Babylonian New Year’s resolution was their custom of returning something borrowed from a friend over the course of the previous year.

The Romans used a different calendar and named the first month of the year after the mythical figure of Janus, a symbol of beginnings and endings, whose two faces allow him to look both forward and backward in time. The Romans celebrated the coming of the new year on January 1st by exchanging gifts, and had their own version of the tradition of resolution-making begun by the Babylonians. A common resolution in ancient Rome was to seek forgiveness from enemies of previous years.

The Chinese New Year, which falls at the time of the first full moon after the sun enters Aquarius (late January through mid-February), has also been celebrated for thousands of years. Among the many customs associated with the Chinese New Year is housecleaning, frequently found today on lists of the most common New Year’s resolutions worldwide.

At Spectrum Art & Jewelry we carry the work of Norah Pierson. Her jewelry is Greco-Roman inspired with pre-Columbian motifs. The imagery of prancing horses, maltese crosses, and ancient shells adorne Norah's pieces. Her jewelry encompasses the same feeling, emotion, and decoration found on jewelry 4,000 years ago in Babylonian times. Stop in today to see her work.