London February 29, 2020

Hi,

Today I spent the day at Somerset House which is a huge old building used as a cultural center now. It is the first year that the fair Collect has been presented in this space. And in my opinion it should be the last. Each booth was in a separate room and some of the rooms were very small and filled with people which made seeing the objects extremely difficult. So my vote is - find another space. Anyway here is a view of the place from the courtyard. Very grand.

Of course, I made a bee line to Marzee's booth and checked out their jewelry. You can see Marie Jose herself in the front center of the photo.

        Otto Kunzli center is "Placemat with Eyes" -ha

Right next to the Marzee room was Galerie SO where Bernhard Schobinger was having a bit of a show. The perfume bottle ring (no that is not my red dot) has an interesting back story. In other words it is a small glass perfume bottle with a gold ring in the center creating a ring. It was dug up from a pile of things swept up after WWII and buried in Berlin. It as recently dug up as new building is taking place there. Inside the bottle Bernhard placed a very tiny pearl strand around the gold ring and there is a small crack in the lip of the bottle indicating its fragility. This is the first of a series he is planning to do about the suffering of women.

Since jewelry is always a lure I love this necklace also by Schobinger.

Here are few more things that caught my eye in the rest of the fair. I will spare you the details- just enjoy the images.

Lacquer rabbit

 The British love ceramics and produce sensitive and beautiful pieces.

This wild brooch is by Sofia Bjorkman using a digital pen and referencing a garden 

This was a combination of fiber and glass elements

Lunch at the Spring restaurant for 2- Sharon and I

Later that afternoon I was part of a panel set up by the British Crafts Council with three panelists. Silvia Weidenbach who is a German jeweler living in London and who has very experimental ideas about making jewelry and was a super energetic speaker, Dan Piersinaru who was darling and started a fair in Romania called Autór and then a magazine by the same name.... and yours truly who represented the gallery/ collector point of view. We were asked to answer questions about the role of fairs and galleries in the craft world and various other topics and we each had different points of view. It was a good panel but we could have done a better job if we had been asked more controversial questions. There was full capacity in the room which surprised the organizers and gave them a clue about the popularity of jewelry which they didn't seem to have.

The magazine with a mirror cover and a carved wooden spoon given to me as a gift by Dan the panelist

Sharon and I went to Nobi in Soho for dinner and sat at a communal table like the one above to celebrate her birthday. It was a super delicious meal. Happy Birthday Sharon.

 That's it for today.

Tomorrow we go to the Tate and then back to Collect. Hold on to your hats.

Hugs,
Susan