North by Northwest
For more than four decades, jewellery artist and educator Laurie Hall has been making stories the subject of her work. Her playful, often whimsical jewellery made with found objects is about the places she lives, the landscapes that fill her imagination, her family history, and her ideas of what it is to be an American. As a jeweller, Hall never plays it safe, preferring to fly by the seat of her pants and push her skills and technical knowledge. Her work is part of numerous private and public collections including The Museum of Art and Design in NYC, The Tacoma Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is a product of the jewellery histories that make the Pacific Northwest unique within the larger story of American contemporary jewellery. Featuring 58 images of Hall’s jewellery spanning the period from 1974 to 2019, this book explores why she is an important maker whose practice deserves to be more widely known.
Susan Cummins is a specialist in contemporary art jewellery who has owned and run numerous galleries. She is one of the founders of the Art Jewelry Forum. In 2018 she became an Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council. Damian Skinner is an art historian, curator of applied art and design at the Auckland Museum, and former editor of Art Jewelry Forum.