This important collection of contemporary jewelry, recently donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, reveals how studio jewelers have transformed the medium by confronting social issues and exploring new technologies and unconventional materials. Consisting of over 300 objects from the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, the collection is by turns edgy, experimental, and even disturbing. Objects range from a necklace featuring a gold cast of a rodent skull to a ring made from a hand-wrought, white-gold nail, bent and thrust through a large smoky quartz. With hundreds of new images and five incisive essays, the book brings this little-known collection to light. AUTHOR: Rosie Chambers Mills is The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Bobbye Tigerman is the Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 278 colour images

Author Biography

Rosie Chambers Mills is The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Bobbye Tigerman is the Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Associate Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Helen W. Drutt English is a pioneering collector and dealer of American modern and contemporary craft. Blake Gopnik is critic-at-large for Artnet News and writes on art and design for a wide range of publications. Benjamin Lignel is a jewelry designer and co-founder of La Garantie, Association Pour Le Bijou.