What Does Artisan Community Mean to You?

Posted On: 01.12.2010  |  Posted In: Artisan FAQs  |  

Celebrating creativity? I would translate the question at hand (what is an artisan community and what does it mean to you?) as being directly related to an artist, or a lover of art, feeling empowered to share their experiences in physical form with a community at large.

I think we can assume that artisan implies a master of their craft, an artist committed to their craft, independent and so on. Yet the concept of community, outside of the obvious interpretation of a gathering of like-minded people, can shift drastically depending on what your perspective is.

So is the artisan community, by which we here at Artisan Design Gallery greatly admire and take great pride in promoting, one of the following:

• A resource for artists?
• A community of artists?
• A directory of artists?
• An art center, you guessed it, populated by artists?
• A gathering of artists?

You get the picture. But it’s intriguing to imagine an artisan community in many different skins, and wondering if in the grand scheme of things, all artisans and artists alike share the same community regardless of who we are, what we create, where we live, etc. After all, does a community have to be explicitly connected by geography or exact likes and dislikes?

Introduction to Handmade Jewelry

Posted On: 12.01.2009  |  Posted In: Artisan FAQs, Jewelry  |  

Handmade jewelry from the Artisan Design Gallery. It’s variety and beauty meshing together in a perfect marriage of sizes, shapes, vibrant colors and patterns. Artisans specializing in hand crafted jewelry find inspiration in the many variances (subtleties at their best) that makes each piece quite unique.

Through all of the scouring we do to find the best in original art from every corner of the artisan community, we look for handmade necklaces, artisan bracelets and more that capture the essence of artisan jewelry. That is of course debatable depending on who you ask, and every artist would likely provide different criteria as to what makes a piece of jewelry one of a kind.

For us here at Artisan Design Gallery, it’s the colors that make our handmade jewelry pieces unique, and since our artists utilize color in every bead, crystal, semi-precious stone and pearl, no piece will ever look exactly the same when compared side-by-side. It’s no secret then that the individuality of each piece in our jewelry collection is something we take great pride in.

Defining Artisan: What Characterizes Original Art?

Posted On: 11.16.2009  |  Posted In: Artisan FAQs  |  

In medieval times, an artisan was noted as a purveyor of goods and services. In fact, prior to the Industrial Revolution in many cultures, the artisan was the primary provider/producers of goods bought and sold, from wood and common metals to leather and more. Both essentials services and products as well as finer commodities, an artisan was (and still is) considered a master craftsman.

Translating artisan to the collection of original art and the very name we carry proudly with each product discovered, featured and shared with our community, and you’ll see the connection to fine craftsmanship that coincides with a deep and rich tradition of the artisan community.

Our fine handmade jewelry pieces are handcrafted by dedicated artists that share common characteristics of every jewelry collection we feature on our site: hours of dedicated craftsmanship, hand selected stones and precious metals, and a flare for individuality that you simply can’t recreate on an assembly line.

The intricacies of producing unique glass art can also be traced back to several pinpoints in history (as far back as 2nd and 3rd millennium BC for ancient glass trade), and the process of hand blowing glass requires a level of skill and commitment that is truly unique.

It’s important to point out that “original” and “artisan” are not simply terms of endearment or historical markers best served in lesson plans or from the pages of a book. They are synonymous with the quality and one-of-a-kind nature you’ll come to expect and appreciate when it come to the artisan community. So while it is historically accurate that artisans were indeed the earliest and most vital of service providers, it is the personality and unique qualities of each piece of art (that we scour the country for) that makes original art truly original.

Introduction to Glass Art

Posted On: 10.30.2009  |  Posted In: Artisan FAQs, Glass Art  |  

What is glass art, and what makes it unique? Good questions, and I think we can sum this up rather succinctly. Besides the rainbow of color and light that dance in and out of every delicate nook and cranny of each glass art piece, the artist’s dedication to the craft is obvious in the stark beauty that makes art glass so darn hard to look away from.

Glass art has distinct qualities and intricacies that make it unique:

• Hand blown glass is a result of an artisan process that is well over 4,000 years old.
• A glass blower is one-of-a-kind among the artist community, dedicating hours of pinpoint craftsmanship to each delicate piece.
• Working with molten glass requires adept skill, immense patience and a healthy helping of gusto and artistic gumption.
• Every piece has strong but subtle qualities that stand out the more you inspect. You could spend hours inspecting a single piece of glass art and still not find all the beautiful subtleties.

Lucky for all of us here at Artisan Design Gallery, we take a great deal of pride and put in that extra bit of time scouring to find the finest quality art glass pieces. Feel free to take a look at our glass art collection and see for yourself.