“Essential to every culture, art is the vehicle for expressing emotions and ideas in a personal and creative manner. The American Jewelry Design Council is a non-profit educational corporation, which recognizes and promotes the appreciation of original jewelry design as art.
To that end the AJDC is committed to raising the awareness of the jewelry industry, the art community, the media and the consumer about the aesthetic value of artistic fine jewelry. Members of the American Jewelry Design Council are dedicated to elevating the caliber of jewelry design through educational activities and to challenging professional jewelry designers worldwide to actualize their creative potential.”
AJDC Mission Statement
About AJDC
The American Jewelry Design Council is a non-profit educational corporation that recognizes and promotes the understanding of original jewelry designs as art. Eight prominent American jewelry designers, including Henry Dunay, Jose Hess, and Cornelis Hollander founded the Council in 1988, establishing these objectives:
To raise the awareness of original jewelry as art
To educate and share information on the appreciation of fine original jewelry
To exchange knowledge and ideas
To establish standards of excellence
To promote a strong artistic identity to the public perception of jewelry
To realize the above goals, each year AJDC conducts educational activities, including exhibitions, lectures, professional panel discussions, publications, studio visits, and more.
Collectively, the members of AJDC have spent nearly a millennium working in jewelry. The group is very influential and members continue to exhibit and win industry awards. Designers and manufacturers in the jewelry industry closely follow the work of AJDC members, who often pioneer trends and styles in jewelry.
Design Project
Each year the group chooses a design theme for which members create one-of-a-kind pieces. The projects are for exhibition only and will not be sold. The projects are meant to stimulate both the artist and the viewer to think beyond common limits and elevate jewelry expression to the realm of fine art. The results are spectacular, with members employing the finest craftsmanship in precious and non-precious materials, as a painter would work from his palette of pigments. No other association of designers comes together and invests so much for an annual challenge like AJDC’s annual design project. These pieces are created solely artistic expression, without commercial intent. The collection debuts at the major jewelry trade shows, Las Vegas or New York, and then travels to museums and galleries across the country including the American Craft Museum, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Christie’s New York.While diamonds, gold, and platinum are frequently used in these pieces, members do not limit themselves to traditional jewelry materials, wood, glass, photographs, Plexiglas, ball bearings, springs, mirrors, nuts and bolts, and even water and a live goldfish have found their way into AJDC projects. While the members’ polished metals and lustrous gems sparkle in their annual design projects, it is the range and expression of human creativity that shines most in this collection.Project themes include Cube, Wheel, Key, Puzzle, Water, Flight, Peek-a-boo, Fold, Sphere, and Pyramid.
Visit: www.ajdc.org
For more information sales@cornelishollander.com or 800-677-6821.
