Louise Bourgeois

(via The Guardian) Louise Bourgeois is 95 and still making art + her total internal reflections @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2184670,00.html

Ex-Abs

Deidre Stein Greben writes about artists switching camps, from abstraction to representation or vice versa + total internal reflections of artists + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1634

Gold Hallmarking In India

Finally the Indian government has decided to act. From New Year (2008) it will become mandatory for gold to be embossed with Bureau of Indian Standards' hallmarking + the measure (the percentage of impurity in the yellow metal is 11-39 per cent) not just protects the public, but also boosts export of jewelry. The experts estimate that India consumes on an average 800 tonnes of gold each year. We shall wait and see how the standardization across the industry is going to work.

The Man Who Listens To Horses

Good Books: I am not an expert on horses, but a friend of mine asked me to read about Monty Roberts. There is so much more to Monty's story that I find applicable to the gem and jewelry markets, and to life. The book is called, The Man Who Listens to Horses. It's a must read.

De Beers’ Supply Structure

It's amazing to see in less than a decade, the diamond industry evolving from a single-channel supply industry into a multi-channel supply industry + De Beers’ century long dominance of the diamond market and its fall – from 90 percent of the rough diamond supply to about 40 percent + the diamond market impact + the new players and market-driven concepts.

The Fourth Antwerp Diamond Conference to be held on October 15 - 16, 2007 will bring together key players including Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers; Varda Shine, managing director of the Diamond Trading Company; Sergey Vybornov, president of Alrosa; Jean-Marc Lieberherr, general manager of Rio Tinto Diamonds; Chris Ryder, marketing director of BHP Billiton Diamonds + representatives from middle-tier diamond mining companies. As usual there will be a lot of talk + interesting discussions + a grand reception.

Import Ban On Burmese Gemstones

Jewelers of America (JA) represents 11,000 member stores in the US. They are asking the U.S. Congress to amend the Burmese Freedom & Democracy Act of 2003, which bans the importation of products from Burma, so that it includes gemstones mined in that country. JA wants effective democratic reforms in Burma. They also want to make sure the sourcing of gemstones are done the right way. Even though the US may be perceived as the largest consumer market for gems and jewelry, I think the industry as whole should take a common stand and find innovative/practical/realistic ways to enforce compliance rules and regulations. No one has ever come up with a brilliant plan/ideas to do so instead it's hard talk with no results. Only an educated consumer (s) could make the big difference. If they stop buying, then there is no business for Burmese stones. It's Catch-22. Many businesses will go under. What's Plan B? What are the alternatives?

Ben Franklin On Humility

(via Dailyspeculations/Charles Pennington) From the Autobiography of Ben Franklin:
'I added humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.'

I liked this one.

Memories Of My Life

Good Books: (via Dailyspeculations) I enjoyed reading Memories of My Life by Francis Galton. As Victor Niederhoffer rightly put it 'Memories of My Life' has a freshness and decency of spirit, and is an illustration of how amazing and creative the human mind can be + it has insights into most scholarly fields, and advice and examples of living a good life on almost every page. I liked this one.

The collected published works by Galton are available at Galton.org
Google allows you to download the book for free.

L'amour fou

(via The Guardian) Total internal reflections of Robert Hughes on surrealism, the most popular art movement of the 20th century + The Victoria and Albert's big show for this year, Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design + the unique designs @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2041396,00.html

Useful link: vam.ac.uk/surrealthings

Classics Of Everyday Design

(via The Guardian) Jonathan Glancey's classics of everyday design:
Classics of everyday design No 21
Classics of everyday design No 22
Classics of everyday design No 23
Classics of everyday design No 24
Classics of everyday design No 25

I liked this one.

Nonsmoking Capricorn Museum Seeks Networking, Dating, Serious Relationships, Friends

Carly Berwick writes about the new trends among institutions to use MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking web sites to reach new people and forge virtual communities + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2366&current=True

Walker Art Center
Andy Warhol Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Tate Gallery
Brooklyn Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Guggenheim Museum New York
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum

Modernizing The Modern

Kelly Devine Thomas writes about New York’s Museum of Modern Art + what the museum has been, what it is, and what it wants to be + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1630

Common Gemstone Treatments

Tourmaline, often occurs in very dark shades of green, so dark as to appear almost black. This as well as the dark blue material can sometimes be made lighter (and the green possibly more greenish) by heat treatment. The temperature must be controlled carefully as overheating may cause destruction through loss of water. Such heat treated materials tend to be somewhat more brittle than untreated material, which may show itself in a tendency to abrade along facet junctions. Sometimes heat treatment of dark green tourmaline results in a structural alteration at the surface; this is believed to be the cause of so-called satellite reading noted when a refractive index is taken on such material.

Zircon. Heating to temperatures in the range of 900° - 1000°C is used to produce the commercially most important colors of zircon. Reddish brown stones are first heated in a reducing atmosphere, which may alter the color of the stones to blue, colorless, or an undesirable off-color. Those that have not turned blue or colorless may next be heated in oxidizing environment, converting some to colorless and others to a yellow, orange or red color. Stones that still have not taken on a marketable color may be heated further in either atmosphere, and some stones may go through several heating. While virtually all of the heat treated may be quite stable to light and reasonably high temperatures, some heat treated zircons will revert to their original pre-treated color over time. As a precaution, such treated zircons are sometimes exposed to sunlight for several days or stored in the dark for as long as a year in an attempt to weed out unstable stones.

Tanzanite, the important gem variety of zoisite, is one of the most strongly pleochroic gems. Most of the material as mined exhibits three pleochroic colors: violet to purple, blue, and yellow to green. The third of these colors gives the stones a rather unattractive muddy appearance. Heating to relatively low temperatures bleaches the unwanted yellow to green pleochroic component, leaving the desirable violet and blue colors. Proper magnifications may reveal evidence of heat treatment, although it is usually assumed that the material in the gem market has been heat treated.

Fall Forward

Economist writes about the strong art market (despite trouble with sub-prime mortgages and other issues) + the new mood in the art market + the expensive works by familiar artists + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9928476

The White House Washington

Bonnie Barrett Stretch writes about the portrait of George Washington that has hung in the White House since 1800 + the controversy + various interpretations by historians and experts + the real story and other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1608

Mind Games

John Cassidy writes about the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which uses state-of-the-art imaging technology to explore the neural bases of economic decision-making @ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/18/060918fa_fact?printable=true

Neuroeconomics is an interesting concept. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in my head when I make stupid decisions when buying gemstones, jewelry + anything.

Cat People

Greatest Opening Film Lines (Cat People - 1942):
Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depressions in the world consciousness.

I liked this one.

Classics Of Everyday Design

(via The Guardian) Jonathan Glancey's classics of everyday design:
Classics of everyday design No 16
Classics of everyday design No 17
Classics of everyday design No 18
Classics of everyday design No 19
Classics of everyday design No 20

I liked it.

New Breed Of Entrepreneurs

New Business Models: Bryan Gardiner writes about Nicholas Reville + Participatory Culture Foundation, a 501(c) (3) non-profit, making and distributing a popular internet video platform, to promote and build an entirely new, open mass medium of online television + revenue models, and other viewpoints @ http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/10/nonprofit_software

The Branding Of Damien Hirst

Pernilla Holmes writes about Damien Hirst, the creator of today’s priciest artworks, curator, collector, entrepreneur, restaurateur, and clothing designer + other viewpoints
@ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2367&current=True