Jewelry is more
than gems and gold
Art academy pays tribute
By Nadine Kam
to the craftsmanship
of jewelry design
Assistant Features Editor
Star-BulletinPity the poor jewelry designer. The sparkle of gems and the gleam of gold or platinum have a tendency to seduce, blinding viewers to the artistry and craftsmanship involved in bringing a piece of jewelry to life.
But beginning tomorrow, jewelry designers will get their due when "All That Glitters" opens at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. On view will be 82 award-winning pieces of jewelry, by 28 designers, from the Hawaii Jewelers Association's annual competitions.
The association is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the art museum is the perfect place to honor these artists whose palettes include gold, silver, diamonds and pearls.
Meghan Dbouk-Connors focuses on themes and imagery, rather than individual stones as centerpieces. She refers to "Titanic's" giant sapphire necklace as "my worst nightmare!
"Big stones are overwhelming, too overpowering. I feel like they have to be put on a pedestal or the head of a Buddha or some statue."
Instead, she strives to use combinations of metal and stone to tell stories. One of her award-winning pieces, "Traveling Star," was created after the birth of her son. At his birth, the comet Halle-Bopp was traveling through the sky.
"It has a back of diamonds, like a flaming trail of light, and the silk cord represents the black of night."
Another piece, "Venus" comprises a Colombian emerald, a black opal, seven diamonds and seven rubies, stones representative of the planet.
"I wanted to work with these stones, I thought they looked neat together. Once I started doing some research it all came together because they were all related to the planet Venus, which is also a symbol for woman."
Honolulu Academy of Arts
Meghan Dbouk-Conners' pieces include, from left, "Venus,"
"Traveling Star" and "Contessa." "Venus" features a black opal
and an emerald, with a ring of diamonds and rubies, all stones
that represent the planet Venus. "Traveling Star" marks the
birth of her son in the year that comet Halle-Bopp visited.
Dbouk-Connors said it has taken her a while to embrace the history and lore of gem stones. "I was first attracted to jewelry-making from the artistic, purely aesthetic possibilities."I'm studying up on the metaphysical properties of stones. Hindus believe sapphires promote health and jade represents good luck and good intentions.
"I'll try some experiments and see what happens."
Dbouk-Connors, started out drawing, painting and sculpting, before branching out into precious metals. She became interested in jewelry-making at Punahou School, where her first project was to pound and bend wire. After graduating, she headed to design school and apprenticeships in Italy, before returning in 1988 and opening Luna Jewels with her husband.
But an art background is not the only route into jewelry design. Tom Wheeler, president of the Hawaii Jewelers Association and owner of Opal Fields, said, "No two of us have the same background. The diversity definitely can be seen in this show."
He entered the business through a traditional apprenticeship at an "old-school British jewelry house in Sydney, Australia."
"There was hardly any room for any artistic impulses. Whereas in an art-metal program they would immediately talk about design and artistic possibilities, we would deal with tolerance requirements.
"They would take a hammer and smash a piece after I spent hours working on it. It was hard to loosen up and be creative in those kinds of situations, but once you get the discipline, the repetitive movements in the hands and wrists; that's what allows you to develop."
And you might say Travis Duggan, of the Black Pearl Gallery, got his start through childhood games he played while growing up in Baton Rouge, La. One of his favorite games -- a hand-held puzzle made up of an odd-number of plastic tiles that would be shifted until the images on the squares formed a picture -- became the basis for one of his award-winning works, "Nemesis."
He said he was 8 when, "I was intrigued by how that puzzle was put together. I took it apart and years later, I could still remember how that was done."
As a puzzle, "Nemesis" has 15 14K squares, each featuring a pattern of blue or yellow diamonds. When the puzzle is solved, the squares show two free-form rivers, one yellow and one blue.
His hobby was building model cars, and he said, "I knew I wanted to go into a field which involved detail work."
When the "Star Wars" movie came out, he was determined to build Hollywood sets, but, "Where I come from, nobody knew where to get training."
They did know, however, how to get a jewelry apprenticeship. Today, he's glad he stayed away from Hollywood.
"Now everything is computerized. You take a film like 'Twister,' that scene where they're on the road, and everything's swirling, and there's a cow going by. They're not going to have a plastic cow built to toss into the air. My expertise would be almost obsolete."
Today, he said his biggest thrill is to have customers and other jewelers see his feats of engineering and ask, "How did he do that?"
And while Dbouk-Connors is honored that the Hawaii Jewelers contributions to fine art in Hawaii will be recognized, she said her pieces were not ultimately meant to sit in a museum.
"I'd rather people were wearing them," she said. "That's the biggest thrill, because jewelry changes depending on who's wearing it. It just adds one more dimension to the piece."
All That Glitters
Place: Honolulu Academy of Arts Graphic Arts Gallery
