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Annika Pettersson Reinterprets Traditional Jewelry

Meet Annika Pettersson, Penland Resident Artist.

Hello, I’m Annika Pettersson!

I’m currently a one-year residence at Penland School of Craft, together with my lovely partner Adam Grinovich

I work predominantly in the jewelry field. As a jeweler, I am fascinated with value and authenticity and how these concepts are instilled in intimate objects. I am fascinated by how pieces of jewelry, and the way they are worn, tell stories about our time. 

While at Penland, I plan to deepen my personal artistic practice and focus on collaborations with other craft practitioners.

I am originally from Sweden, and I wanted to connect to the American craft field, and Penland is perfect for this since so many incredible makers pass through in a year.

This residency is coming at a good time for me since I just stopped teaching and wanted to have time to focus and develop my artistic practice.

If you want to know more about my work and my collaborations, come by The Barns studios or check out my Instagram.

Applications for the Penland Resident Artist program are open through July 2.

Please enjoy a small selection of images showing Annika’s work and process:

Gold rings

Rose ring

Carat ring

 


Remember the beach, brooch

Recall blue, white and beige, brooch

Bird, brooch

Necklace, silver, tourmaline, morganite

Studio workbench

Studio workbench

Discover more of Annika’s work HERE.

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Photo of the Week: Gravity Casting

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Juvana Soliven casting bronze using the awesome power of gravity in this session’s metals workshop taught by Suzanne Pugh. Suzanne decided to focus the workshop on gravity casting rather than centrifugal or vacuum casting because it’s cheaper to set up in a home studio and also opens the possibility of making larger-scale work.

 

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Winter Studio Visit: Sarah Brown

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Opening the freezing door to the upper metals studio last week, we were met by Penland core fellow Sarah Brown and her meticulous landscape of metals, molds, notes, and materials. She was playing Radiohead, which matched the mood exactly; entering Sarah’s work space is to enter an unpredictable and mysterious world of particulars.

 

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During her solo studio time this winter, Sarah is experimenting with the viscosity of rhinestones. In one ring, a set opaque rhinestone with droplets of sterling silver and white rhinestone protrudes like a small undiscovered planet from a band. (The line between setting and stone wonderfully eroded.) The rhinestone is frozen in a semi-molten state, the facets overwhelmed by encroaching droplets. The whole thing seems doomed to devour itself (Sarah is calling it the “exploded rhinestone ring.”) Many of Sarah Brown’s pieces instantly project the dramas of matter.

And there’s an intense method to her magic. Sarah’s using her winter to focus on the grounding elements of jewelry production—perfecting prototypes for her pieces and her own molds—and giving time to this process before moving on to replication. She gives credit and thanks to Penlander and metalsmith Adam Whitney for helping her create a strategy for the winter. One need only to take a look at the whiteboard above her work space to know: Sarah Brown is an artist who means business.

 

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Photographs by Robin Dreyer, writing by Elaine Bleakney