| There are no shortcuts to excellence and for jewelry artists especially, the path is fraught with challenge. Technical mastery does not come easily; it is the reward of years spent practicing and failing, and practicing some more. Dedication to craftsmanship is fundamental to fine metalsmithing and there are no shortcuts.
Robin Martin-Cust and NaMu Cho are two jewelry artists intimate with the challenging processes of metalsmithing. Both are working with combined 22k gold and steel. Martin-Cust’s work reflects the environment of her home on Deer Isle, Maine. It is highly textured and rough-hewn. Sometimes it is delicate, and very often, it is both. Cho’s work explores mass with elegance and refinement. A native Korean, his methods are the legacy of Korean jewelers from more than a thousand years ago.
There are no shortcuts to excellence; it can take centuries just to find the threshold. The work of Na Mu Cho bows to the technical achievements of the ancient Korean metalsmiths. Using a method called poe-mock ssang gum, translated literally as “fabric inlay,” he first etches the steel very finely, and then hammers the gold into the incisions. The gleam of gold splashing across the steel surface is explosive and exciting. It is a tribute to his craftsmanship that this painstaking and demanding method yields so spontaneous and exciting an effect.
Martin-Cust ‘s work draws from her own, very different, legacy. Both grandfathers were blacksmiths and her methods resemble theirs. Like them, she forges metal with a hammer, coaxing it into the forms she requires. To these she will add 18k and 22k gold, sometimes incorporating found materials like bone and wood. At other times, she uses diamonds. The forms in her work derive from the beaches, rock cliffs and boats of the Maine shoreline. Paddles have metaphoric significance in her pieces. They are gifts for the navigation of life.
Jewelry artists Na Mu Cho and Robin Martin-Cust create fine art jewelry using materials and techniques of the most challenging kind. Their work is intricate and their methods are painstaking. These two artists bring together their metals and tradition, forging new art and new excellence. |
