Allan Adler, Crowns, 1953, Courtesy of Mrs. Allan Adler, Doug Hill photograph

The tiaras created by Allan Adler for the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants in the early 1950s – with stars, planets, even Saturn’s rings – are more at home in a planetarium, a far cry from the pedestrian bursts of sparkling stones that are today’s standard.

Jewelry itself has continued to evolve, stretching boundaries and dazzling the eye, sometimes with colors, sometimes with shapes. Today’s jewelers often make a political or social statement with their work – jewelry not to be worn, but displayed and considered. New materials are showing up. Exotic metals once only used in industry. Found objects which taken in isolation might be passed by or thrown out.

Jan Yager, Necklace, Cast crack vial caps, Oxidized sterling silver, Courtesy of Craft In America, Inc.

Much of the change in all metalwork has its origins in the studio craft movement that began in the middle of the past century. By allowing an artist the freedom to design and fabricate his or her own piece, from start to finish, has opened the floodgates of creativity. It has allowed for studied classicism and unbridled abandon.

Today’s craft artists’ views of the future are clearer because they stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before. That’s the legacy that awaits you.

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