Painting Plein Air with Ann Hair

This post is from one of our gallery artists, sharing her recent painting workshop experience. The term Plein Air refers to painting outdoors and in the moment. Enjoy.

Last week-end I traveled to St. Simons, GA to participate in a three day workshop with artists from the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE). Each day, we chose one of 2 instructors and painted en plein air (french term meaning in the open air).

What a wealth of information I received from master plein air painters. Saturday, Armand Cabrera led our group of 18 through exercises in painting moss draped oaks and beautiful marshes. As storm clouds loomed in the distance, we painted our 2nd painting of the day. A downpour had us running for cover.

Armand gave an interesting demonstration about reflected light and how it affects our paintings. Sunday, our large group gathered around Dee Beard Dean as she demonstrated her technique painting the St. Simon's lighthouse and keepers cottage. The clouds that rolled in made for interesting compositions. My painting of the oil house in the shade of a palm tree (see below) capitalized on all the information I absorbed from Dee.

Monday, we hung out at the pier with Larry Moore (president of PAP-SE) and practiced drawing on canvas with one color, concentrating on values rather than color. After drawing, we added color and I got a good one of a trellis with shimmering light in the background that draws you in.

Although we were pretty exhausted, a few of us die hards tried to paint the sunset over the marsh. Tried is the operative word. Blinded by the setting sun, I painted intuitively and got a quick study in before the sun disappeared.

Energized by all we had learned, Tuesday we stopped in Darien, GA on our way home. Marshes and shrimp boats drew our attention and begged to be painted. After a quick study, we embarked on the long drive home.

I'm looking forward to doing it all again.
To view some of Ann's artworks currently at the gallery click on this link: http://www.spectrumartandjewelry.com/Anne_Hair.html

May Birthstone: Emerald

By Nicole Wilkinson

May's birthstone is the emerald. Emerald is the green version of the mineral Beryl. It was considered to be the talisman of the goddess Venus, and to represent faith, goodness and kindness.

Emeralds vary in color from light to deep green. It is commonly thought that an emerald's green colour derives from the presence of chromium and or vanadium replacing some of the aluminum in the mineral's structure. The stone can, however, lose its color when heated strongly. There are natural emeralds and lab created emeralds. One of the most popular and widely known lab created emerald is by the Chatham company.

A fine quality emerald of good color and clarity is more valuable than a diamond. In 1938, Carroll F. Chatham created the first laboratory grown gem quality emerald. A gemstone bearing all the same physical, chemical and optical qualities of mined gems at a fraction of the cost. The cut, polished Chatham Created Emerald so clearly duplicates nature's that special tests are necessary for positive identification. Many of today's emeralds are strip mined and have been artificially color enhanced, Chatham Created Emeralds are 100% natural color, never treated or oiled.

Stop in today to see the variety of natural and Chatham Emeralds carried at Spectrum Art & Jewelry!


**excerpts from Chatham Created Gems & Diamonds

A Visit to Basel World Jewelry Festival in Switzerland

By Star Sosa

Nancy and I recently had the opportunity to attend the fabulous watch and jewelry festival in Basel, Switzerland. I have to say that this show was unlike anything I have ever attended in the US. We first flew to Frankfurt, Germany and took the train down to the town of Freiburg, which is just a short ways from Basel.

Freiburg is a delightful university town in southern Germany and is a 30 minute express train ride from Basel. It allowed us to stay in much more affortdable accomodations with access to great restaurants and shopping. The train station was only a five minute walk from our hotel and a ten minute walk from the convention complex in Basel.

Honestly, the train travel and public transportation in Europe is awesome. It was easy to understand and enjoyable to use. In town there are quiet and convenient street cars to take you to your final destinations.

The show in Basel is housed in six buildings, all huge. The primary emphasis is watches and jewelry but there are also suppliers of loose gems, beads,jewelry parts, displays, packaging, tools and machinery. We were overwhelmed from the start.

Our first stop was to visit the gem dealers who had provided our free passes into the show. Unlike the shows here at home, you have to pay to attend. Also, the Basel show is open to everyone not just the trade. However, at 45 Euro per day per person, it can get pretty expensive. We were grateful to have the passes, even if they were second hand from other jewelry buddies.

Of course, once we stopped in their booth, it was hard to not get involved in perusing their fabulous wares. A word about the boothes, these are really more like buildings than anything one could call a "booth". First, they had hard walls with display windows, second they were HUGE with multiple rooms and comfortable sitting areas and all the amenities. We were invited into a private viewing room to look at gems and beads. The light was excellent, which is unusual, and while we looked someone brought us coffee and cookies. What a civilized way to shop!

So, it was hard to resist and we ended up purchasing some incredible Paraiba Tourmaline beads and some Namibian blue green tourmaline cut gems. What a treat. We couldn't wait to get our package so we could start working on the designs.

We spent the balance of the day visiting the different floors of this one building, just blown away by the variety and quality of the gems and jewelry. I can't get over how many diamond tiaras there were in the estate displays. After all, how many opportunities to do you get to wear one of those? There were incredible suites of gemstones in matching color and graduated sizes including emeralds the size of robin's eggs and fabulous sapphires and diamonds.

The next day we returned to visit the designer jewelry building. This housed mainly german designers and every one was inspiring. Our first visit was with Tom and Bernd Munsteiner. Bernd is probably one of the most celebrated gem designers in the world. His cut crystals and gemstones are in collections and museums around the world. Tom is his son and together with his wife, Jutta, designs some incredible jewelry around the gems they cut. We hope to represent their jewelry in our gallery in the coming year. I really think it will be a good fit.

It was a treat to visit the other designers in this building. The displays were mind boggling. I have to thing that they hired movie set designers to create their displays. There were crystal chandileers, fancy buffets and expresso or wine bars. Many had elegant furnishings and it looked like private parties going on. The glitterati from everywhere were there. We asked around and were told that there were very few American buyers there. The strong Euro has made a dent in our ability to buy European.

I looked at this trip as an excellent opportunity to research and learn more about the international jewelry market. It was an eye opening experience, to say the least. I don't know if I can afford to return next year, but I have every intention of doing business with some of these vendor in the future. I'd like to return with a suitcase full of money, to buy some of the gorgeous creations we saw there.

Next we made our way to Paris for some R&R and for Nancy to get materials for paintings. More about that in another post.

Star

“Why does gold jewelry sometimes discolor my finger?”

By Star Sosa

Every once in a while I get a customer in whose gold jewelry is making black marks on their skin or clothing. Often they are concerned that this is due to faulty manufacturing or underkarating. However this is usually not the case. The most common reason is metallic abrasion, caused by makeup on the skin or clothing. Cosmetics often contain compounds that are harder than the jewelry itself, which wear or rub off very tiny particles. Very finely divided metal always appears black rather than metallic, so it looks like jet-black dust. When this dust comes into contact with skin or clothing, it sticks, forming a black smudge.

To prevent this, try switching cosmetics. It also helps to remove rings and other jewelry while applying your makup and to clean skin areas in contact with jewelry with soap and water before putting your jewelry back on.

Another cause is actual corrosion of the metals. Gold itself does not corrode, but its primary base-metal alloys of silver or copper with do so. When you perspire, fats and fatty acids released can cause corrosion of 14k gold, especially when exposed to warmth and air. This problem may be worse in coastal areas (like Wilmington) where chlorides combine with perspiration to form a corrosive element that discolors skin.

You can mitigate this by removing your jewelry often and using an absorbent powder, free of abrasives, on skin that comes into contact with jewelry.

So in summary: remove your jewelry before using soaps, cleansers, makeup, etc. and clean your jewelry frequently. This should resolve the problem and even better, your jewelry will look its best.

One more thing, consider switching up to higher karat gold, 18k or better which would significantly reduce the problem. Or even better, Platinum or Palladium, which will solve the problem completely.

Costume Jewelry VS. Fine Jewelry

By Nicole Wilkinson

There was a question posted in a fashion blog that I responded to and thought I would share.

I have no idea about jewelry..what should I buy??

Jewelry is something you should invest in. I can tell you, that after being in a sorority, living in Manhattan and following regular trends, I find myself every 2 years going through my jewelry drawer saying, what was I thinking??? I just gave about 30 pieces away to my 4 year old niece for dress up. As you get in your late 20's you realize all of this costume stuff really is junk. It breaks, tarnishes, goes out of style...what a waste of money! Imagine if you had bought 1 or 2 classic pieces. They never go out of style. My adivce is buy what you can afford, but save for it. Jewelry is meant to be a splurge. What fun is it to throw down 10k for a diamond incrusted necklace? Sure it would be nice, but jewelry is meant to be special. This year, treat yourself for your birthday to a nice piece. Save $20 a month, or whatever your budget will allow. Then you will really feel like a princess when you get your piece of jewelry. You will feel like you worked hard for it and you DESERVE it! Good luck and enjoy!

Spectrum Art & Jewelry 2008 Niche Award Nominee

Spectrum Art & Jewelry has been nominated for the 2008 Niche Top Retailer Award. This is an honor to be nominated. Thank you to those of you who helped in the nominating process. We will keep you posted on the outcome.