Speakers

October 14-16 2011


Elyse Zorn Karlin
Elyse Zorn Karlin is the founder and executive editor of Adornment Magazine. She is also the author of the definitive book on jewelry of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts & Crafts Tradition and co-author of Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry. She is author of seven other books.

She writes on jewelry for a number of publications and is a well-known lecturer. She is co-director of the Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts (ASJRA) and The Annual Conference on Jewelry & Related Arts. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women and Who’s Who in Authors, Writers and Poets.

Elyse is guest curator for International Art Jewelry: 1895-1925 to open at The
Forbes Galleries, New York City on October 29, 2011 and will run through March
17, 2012. She also curated “Jewelers of the Hudson Valley” at The Forbes
Galleries.

www.jewelryandrelatedarts.com
www.asjra.net

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Yvonne Markowitz
After working as a research fellow in the Egyptian section, Art of the Ancient World, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yvonne J. Markowitz was appointed the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry. The first curatorship of its kind in America, Markowitz oversees the museum’s exceptional collection of jewelry. She is the editor of Adornment Magazine.

A frequent lecturer, she has published extensively in the area of ancient and contemporary jewelry and is the co-author of the books Artistic Luxury: Jewels from the House of Tiffany and Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry. She is co-director of The Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts and The Annual Conference on Jewelry & the Related Arts.

Her most recent curatorial efforts have been Imperishable Beauty: Art Nouveau Jewelry and Jewelry, Gems, and Treasures, Ancient to Modern currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

www.mfa.org


Helen Serras-Herman
Helen Serras-Herman is an acclaimed gem sculptor with over 27 years of
experience in unique gem sculpture and jewelry art. In recent years, she has
been working on ‘wearable sculptures’, sculptures that are partially
removable and can be worn as jewelry. These pieces explore the connection and
transition between the worlds of fine art and wearable art.

Born in New York City, she has lived in Athens, Greece and studied Sculpture
in Berlin, Germany for 6 years. She received her masters (MFA) there under
Professor Harro Jacob. A graduate gemologist (FGA) and apprentice to the last
master of the English school of glyptic arts, Helen has devoted the last 25
years to working with gems. In 2005, after 18 years of living in Maryland,
Helen and her husband moved to Rio Rico, in Southern Arizona.

Helen has exhibited worldwide, featured in solo exhibits and participating in
many group exhibits. In the United States she has exhibited at the Lizzadro
Museum of Lapidary Art, numerous times at the Carnegie Museum of Natural
History, the Pittsburgh Ballet Opera, the L.A. County Natural History Museum,
the Historic Manning House in Tucson, AZ, the Quiet Waters Park Art Show in
Annapolis, MD, the AGTA GemFair in Tucson, AZ and Las Vegas, NV, the American
Opal Society Show in Anaheim, CA, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art,
in Scottsdale, AZ, and the West Valley Art Museum in Surprise, AZ.

Helen’s awards include:

- Induction into the National Lapidary Hall of Fame 2003.
- Best of Show Award for gem sculpture The Omphalos of Earth, Fall
2006 exhibit Pathways and Portals, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac,
Arizona.
- Best of Show Award- Jewelry Division for the opal and emerald necklace
Echoes, 2003 Manning House Art Show, Tucson, AZ.
- First Place Award for Each One, Teach One competition in 1994 Eastern
Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies (EFLMS)
- 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award Chesapeake Gem & Mineral Society
- 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award Gem, Lapidary & Mineral Society of
Washington DC
- 1992 Presidential Award Gem Lapidary & Mineral Society of Washington, DC
- Nomination for “Best of Artists” for July 2008 Collector’s Edition

Helen is a past president of the Gem Artists of North America and the Gem
Lapidary and Mineral Society of Washington, DC.

Her Silver Faces Collection features beautiful gems and one-of-a-kind
sculptured sterling silver centerpieces which she carves by hand in wax and
then casts. These pieces are inspired directly from her sculptural work.

Her Passion for Opals Collection includes works that feature the wealth and
variety of opals, from precious black opals to boulder opals, with several
one-of-a-kind carved opal beads. The Terra Verde-Tribute to our beautiful
forests wearable sculpture was featured in the Colored Stone 2008 Tucson Show
Guide Magazine, and the sugarcane emerald Nymphs and Opal Slide Necklace was
featured in the 2010 Tucson Show Guide Magazine.

Her latest collection Copper Trails is inspired by Southern Arizona’s
copper mining history and Helen’s visits to several of these mines. Her
one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces feature many beautiful Arizona gems, combined
with her favorite Australian black and boulder opals and the rare sugarcane
emeralds from Brazil, set in ‘twisted’ combinations of gold, sterling
silver and copper chains, copper beads, copper-color pearls and carved gems.

Helen is also a noted lecturer; she has given more than 80 lectures nationwide
to 35 societies and associations. Her work has been published in many magazine
articles, and in entire chapter of the book Cameos Old & New. Her work was also
featured in the book Phenomenal Gems by Fred & Charlotte Ward and in the fine
art book ArtBuzz, the 2008 Collection after an international competition.

Recently Helen’s work is gracing the cover of the Summer 2010 issue of Gems
& Jewellery Magazine, is featured in the new book Gem Engraving in Great
Britain from Antiquity to the Present by Dr. Julia Kagan, and in the
Warman’s Jewelry, 4th Edition, Identification & Price Guide by Kathy Flood.

“Inspired by people and mythology my gem sculptures and jewelry take the
symbolic shape of gods, nymphs or fantastical creatures. I try to portray them
with grace and elegance, with exaggeration, pushing the visual limits.
Influenced by travels, landscapes, gem materials, history of the ancient
worlds, the great masters and the world around me, my art usually tells a story.

Decode the past. Make your own interpretation. I am working. I am
dreaming.”

To see Helen Serras-Herman’s work please visit her website at
www.gemartcenter.com