This word is so familiar to all of us. We buy jewelry. We wear jewelry. Some of us make jewelry. While some sell jewelry.
But what does Jewelry mean to us, especially here in Thailand?
When I first returned home from the US and started working as a studio jeweler, I had a hard time telling other people what I do. When people asked, I often said “I made jewelry” without thinking much about it. But the response I got from many people, like my mom’s friends, was “So you sell diamonds?” I didn’t even want to get into the whole converstion with them about the differences between gems and jewelry. And when I tried to explain to them that I actually sit at the bench and physically make jewelry myself, they all looked at me thinking that I must be crazy. And most of them stopped asking me questions then…just because they had no idea what I was talking about!
Here in Thailand, when people think of jewelry, they think of diamonds and precious gems. The settings are just what accompany the gems. Even worse, some people think of gold when they talk about gems! What’s going on here? People here generally think of gems and jewelry as one. Gems must be in jewelry and jewelry must have gems in it.
I was curious what the word jewelry really means so I looked it up in my 20-year-old Collin’s dictionary.
“Jewellery (in British English) is ornaments such as rings, bracelets, or necklaces which are often made of valuable metal such as gold, and which are sometimes decorated with precious stones.”
So it seems to me that when we think of jewelry, we should be thinking of body adornments in the forms of rings, necklaces, cuffs, etc. but not of the materials used. And definitely it shouldn’t be about the gems used in it.
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- This is jewelry.
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- This is not!?
It will take a while to educate Thai jewelry buyers that there are more to jewelry than that. I just hope that it will not be too long for my mom’s friends to look at the kind of jewelry that I make and automatically think of the word “Jewelry”.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Helen Hill 10.10.08 at 2:45 p10
I agree that people don’t get the concept of what it means to make jewellery. I have made many things for various people but they don’t understand the process of how things are made. One recipient thought that I buy the settings and glue (!!!) the stones in! Another thought that I bought the pendant and just hung it on the chain! When I explain that I fabricate everything using sterling sheet and wire, they just look at me in a confused manner.
bethwicker 10.10.08 at 2:45 p10
Absolutely! I think the handmade thing is perhaps more common here in the US, but people still don’t really “get” that you can make all the elements yourself. When I do shows I try to take something with me to work on at the show. I find this helps people “believe” that I made the things myself. So maybe you could set up some demonstrations?
Michael David Sturlin 11.03.08 at 2:45 p11
In the nearly 20 years that I have been spending time in the Kingdom of Thailand I have encountered what Atty speaks about quite consistently in reference to jewelry in the mainstream Thai perception.
Aside from my wife’s family members who have been to the west and seen my studio and are familiar with the work I do, almost no-one I know there has any understanding of what a studio jewelry artist is or what one does. Most also don’t have a comprehension of the words studio and jewelry together, or the words jewelry and artist together.
Many of my Thai friends and acquaintances, whom are mostly professional people, doctors, teachers, administrators, etc, understood that a jewelry designer was a person who drew jewelry as rendered illustrations, not a maker. A jeweler was a person who sold jewelry, not a maker. A goldsmith, as Atty suggests, is looked upon as a skilled tradesman, probably not thought of as a designer or an artist.
For many years, after finding the same response over and over when asked what I do, I merely discontinued referring to myself as a goldsmith or a studio artist or a jewelry designer. There was really little point to mention jewelry unless I wanted to explain over and over that I did not have a “jewelry shop” or sell diamonds or pre-made commercial jewelry. It became far easier just to describe myself as a teacher and leave it at that.
I think the awareness of jewelry as something more expressive than just a colored stone surrounded by diamonds, void of what most of us would recognize as design, is still just barely awakening in Thailand.
I also believe it will be an exciting time for those studio artists in the Kingdom who are seeking to broaden the perception and heighten the awareness of jewelry as an expressive art form as well as decorative adornment. A challenging time, yes, and also one which portends a
new fruition of artistry among groups like Tanim.