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If you think of beads and gemstones as paint and metal, thread or wire as a canvas, then a jewelry designer is an artist. Just as a painter chooses his colors and his subject and applies his paint to a surface, the jewelry designer chooses gems and beads, then creates a suitable background for them by applying them to metal or to string. Other designers use natural objects such as shells and fabrics to complete a creation. Some use the metals themselves, combining them in new and imaginative ways. But in every case, the jewelry designer must first develop his or her concept of what the finished piece should look like, and develop methods to create that finished look.

It is true that some jewelry makers simply string a few beads on a thread, but others give careful consideration to the overall effect they want to create. But imaginative painters and jewelry designers both have given careful consideration to what they want their finished piece to look like, and how to best create that effect. Just as painters and sculptors use raw materials to crezte a finished work of art, so, too, do jewelry designers incorporate their raw materials into a finished creation.

Salvador Dali, for example, created great, and sometimes bizarre, works of art, many of which are considered to be modern masterpieces. But he was also famous for his fabulous art deco jewelry executed in gold, platinum, and precious gems. Dali did not differentiate between painting and jewelry creation, and chose the medium that best expressed his concept.

Modern museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the famous Louvre in Paris, proudly display jewelry among their collections, and famous auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's frequently feature auctions of jewelry collections and individual pieces.

An artist becomes a craftsman when he or she actually begins the process of completing a work of art, whether the chosen medium is paint, clay, or beads. Once again, the artist decides on a subject, creates a concept of the way in which it is to be presented, and then crafts the work of art.

Learn more about this author, Mary Gindling.
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