Clifton Nicholson

Last updated

Clifton Nicholson
Born1944
Indiana
Other namesCliff Nicholson
Education Purdue University
Known forJewelry design, sculpture, peacock breeding.

Clifton 'Cliff' Nicholson is an American sculptor and jewelry designer. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Clifton Nicholson grew up in Indiana where, from an early age, he developed his sculpting skills by carving soap. [2]

Nicholson studied engineering before taking a metals design class, eventually choosing to focus on interior design at Purdue University. [3] Although he hated the subject, he still learned enough to design "Roughwood", a house for his parents in Indiana, for which he received a Burlington House Award, [2] which was presented annually by the Burlington textiles company to those whose interior design skills were deemed deserving of recognition. [4] He graduated in 1967 with a Master's in jewelry and metal design, with a minor in weaving. [5] After graduation, Nicholson briefly worked as official silversmith for the Restoration Commission in St. Augustine, Florida before moving to New York. [3]

Jewelry

Some of Nicholson's early designs were exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now the Museum of Arts and Design), New York. [2] [5] Upon his arrival in New York, Nicholson became an assistant designer for Richelieu, at that time the second largest jewelry company in America. [3] [6] He was introduced to the company by Bill Smith, also from Indiana, who became vice president of Richelieu after only two months. [6] [7] Whilst working for Richelieu Nicholson took advantage of the nights and weekends to produce his own work, which he sold to Neiman Marcus and Henri Bendel. [3] One of his shell, leather and feather necklaces was modelled by Lauren Hutton on the cover of the edition of March 15, 1970 of American Vogue . [3] This exposure led to Nicholson being fired by Richelieu, who took exception to their junior designer receiving so much attention. [2] Later that year, Nicholson was one of six jewelry designers honoured with a special Coty Award in 1970 alongside Daniel Stoenescu and Steven Brody of Cadoro, Alexis Kirk, Marty Ruza and Bill Smith. [8] Like Alexis Kirk, he received the award for his debut collection. [9] [10]

Nicholson's jewelry is known for its use of natural materials, such as feathers, uncut crystal, cowrie shells, petrified beetles and mother-of-pearl, which he combined into sculptural, one-of-a-kind forms. [9] [11] In 1974, he created his first diamond collection, using the gemstones and small amounts of gold to complement his shell sculptures. [9] By the early 1980s, he was relying less on feathers and leather, and was producing precious metal jewellery using the lost-wax method. [2]

Among his inspirations, Nicholson credits the architects Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright, the glass artists Émile Gallé and René Lalique, and Louis Comfort Tiffany as particularly influential. [3] Nature is also a very significant influence on his work, and he has said he finds it difficult to work in an urban context. [2] After starting out in Manhattan with only a small tree and a pet African bullfrog to keep him in touch with nature, he relocated his studio in the early 1980s to Kerhonkson, a tiny hamlet in New York State which offered a more conductive working environment. [2]

A retrospective exhibition of his work was hosted by the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (now KMAC Museum) from April to June 2004. [1]

Personal life

After 28 years in New York, Nicholson bought Roughwood from his parents and moved back home to Scottsburg, Indiana, where he has worked from since. [1] In addition to his jewelry and sculpture, he currently runs the Roughwood Aviary which is dedicated to breeding peafowl and pheasants, including Onagadori chickens and rare species such as the great argus pheasant and the Malay and Bornean peacock-pheasants. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art jewelry</span> Type of jewelry

Art jewelry is one of the names given to jewelry created by studio craftspeople. As the name suggests, art jewelry emphasizes creative expression and design, and is characterized by the use of a variety of materials, often commonplace or of low economic value. In this sense, it forms a counterbalance to the use of "precious materials" in conventional or fine jewelry, where the value of the object is tied to the value of the materials from which it is made. Art jewelry is related to studio craft in other media such as glass, wood, plastics and clay; it shares beliefs and values, education and training, circumstances of production, and networks of distribution and publicity with the wider field of studio craft. Art jewelry also has links to fine art and design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letitia Baldrige</span> American public relations executive, etiquette expert, and Kennedy staffer (1926–2012)

Letitia "Tish" Baldrige was an American etiquette expert, public relations executive and author who was most famous for serving as Jacqueline Kennedy's Social Secretary.

Robert Ebendorf is an American metalsmith and jeweler, known for craft, art and studio jewelry, often using found objects. In 2003–2004, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized an exhibition of 95 pieces, titled The Jewelry of Robert Ebendorf: A Retrospective of Forty Years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Lee Hu</span> American artist, goldsmith and educator

Mary Lee Hu is an American artist, goldsmith, and college level educator known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Liebes</span> American textile designer and weaver

Dorothy Wright Liebes was an American textile designer and weaver renowned for her innovative, custom-designed modern fabrics for architects and interior designers. She was known as "the mother of modern weaving".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Dailey (glass artist)</span> American artist

Dan Owen Dailey is an American artist and educator, known for his sculpture. With the support of a team of artists and crafts people, he creates sculptures and functional objects in glass and metal. He has taught at many glass programs and is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, where he founded the glass program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gijs Bakker</span> Dutch jewelry designer (born 1942)

Gijs Bakker is a Dutch jewellery and industrial-designer, educated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, Sweden.

Gary Lee Noffke is an American artist and metalsmith. Known for versatility and originality, he is a blacksmith, coppersmith, silversmith, goldsmith, and toolmaker. He has produced gold and silver hollowware, cutlery, jewelry, and forged steelware. Noffke is noted for his technical versatility, his pioneering research into hot forging, the introduction of new alloys, and his ability to both build on and challenge traditional techniques. He has been called the metalsmith's metalsmith, a pacesetter, and a maverick. He is also an educator who has mentored an entire generation of metalsmiths. He has received numerous awards and honors. He has exhibited internationally, and his work is represented in collections around the world.

Bill Smith is an American fashion and jewelry designer who was the first black recipient of a Coty Award for his designs. He has designed for a number of companies, including costume jewelry for Coro and Richelieu, leather goods for Mark Cross, and furs for Ben Kahn, along with designing jewelry for Cartier.

George William Headley III was an American jewelry designer, collector, socialite and founder of the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky. As a designer, he was known for collaborations with Salvador Dalí, Paul Flato, David Webb and Cartier, between the 1920s and 1960s, with clients including Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland and Joan Crawford, as well as for his extravagant bibelots - small, intricate and precious decorative objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Paul Miller</span>

John Paul Miller was an American jewellery designer and goldsmith, who also produced films, photographs and paintings. Stephen Harrison, decorative arts curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, compares Miller's work with that of René Lalique and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Cooke</span> American designer

Catherine Elizabeth Cooke is an American designer whose career has lasted more than 73 years. She is principally known for her jewelry. She has been called "an icon within the tradition of modernist jewelry" and "a seminal figure in American Modernist studio jewelry". Her pieces have been shown nationally and internationally and are included in a number of museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. She is regarded as an important role model for other artists and craftspeople.

Janet Payne Bowles was an American art educator, metalsmith, and jewelry designer from Indianapolis, Indiana, who is best known for creating intricate Arts-and-Crafts-style jewelry, flatware, and other small objects. Although the self-taught artisan had little commercial success during her lifetime, she became famous after designing a jewelry collection for actress Maude Adams to wear in a stage production of As You Like It. Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke and J. P. Morgan commissioned Payne Bowles to make severals pieces of metalwork and jewelry for their collections. She also regularly exhibited her art in the United States and Europe and taught art classes at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis from 1912 until her retirement in 1942. Examples of Payne Bowles's work are included in the collections of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. She also wrote book reviews for Modern Art in the early years of her career and contributed articles to The Craftsman in 1904, Handicraft in 1909 and in 1910, and Jewelers' Circular Weekly in 1911. In addition, Payne Bowles provided illumination paintings for limited-edition books such as The Second Epistle of John (1901). Her novel, Gossamer to Steel, was published in 1917.

Jamie Bennett is an American artist and educator known for his enamel jewelry. Over his forty-year career, Bennett has experimented with the centuries-old process of enameling, discovered new techniques of setting, and created new colors of enamel and a matte surfaces. This has led him to be referred to as “one of the most innovative and accomplished enamellers of our time” by Ursula Ilse-Neuman, historian and former curator at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Bennett is closely associated with the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he studied himself as a student, and taught in the Metal department for many years. Bennett retired from teaching in 2014, after thirty years at SUNY New Paltz.

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is an American metalsmith, artist, critic, and educator living and working in Stone Ridge, New York. Mimlitsch-Gray's work has been shown nationally at such venues as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Museum of the City of New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Museum of Arts and Design. Her work has shown internationally at such venues as the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Stadtisches Museum Gottingen, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is held in public and private collections in the U.S, Europe, and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alma Eikerman</span> American jeweler and metalsmith

Alma Rosalie Eikerman was an American metalsmith, silversmith, and jewelry designer who was instrumental in building the metals program at Indiana University, of which she retired Distinguished Professor Emeritus. She was a founding member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and studied under several internationally renowned metalsmiths, such as Karl Gustav Hansen. Eikerman's work has appeared in over 200 exhibitions, including Objects: USA at the Smithsonian Institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun Leane (jeweller)</span> British jewelry designer

Shaun Leane is a British jewellery designer best known for his sculptural pieces created for Alexander McQueen. His eponymous jewellery brand is a four-time winner of the UK Jewellery Designer of the Year award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret De Patta</span> American jewelry designer and educator

Margaret De Patta was an American jewelry designer and educator, active in the mid-century jewelry movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marjorie Schick</span> American jewelery

Marjorie Schick was an innovative American jewelry artist and academic who taught art for 50 years. Approaching sculptural creations, her avant-garde pieces have been widely collected. Her works form part of the permanent collections of many of the world's leading art museums, including the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania; and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Ann Scherr</span> American multidisciplinary designer

Mary Ann Scherr was an American designer, metalsmith and educator. She was known for her jewellery design and industrial design, but she also worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, game designer, fashion and costume designer and silversmith.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Clifton Nicholson: A Retrospective". Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pederson Budge, Rose Mary (October 19, 1982). "By nature, his work is varied, fascinating". The Deseret News. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Clifton Nicholson: A Retrospective: Artistic Influences". Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ Baldrige, Letitia (2003). Letitia Baldrige's new manners for new times : a complete guide to etiquette. New York: Scribner. p. 587. ISBN   9780743210621.
  5. 1 2 "Clifton Nicholson: A Retrospective". Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Jewelry Genius Becomes a Veep". Ebony. October 1968. pp. 92–94. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  7. ↑ Wessenger, Gerald (2007). A Charmed Life. iUniverse. p. 196. ISBN   9780595451111.
  8. ↑ McDowell, Colin (1984). McDowell's Directory of Twentieth Century Fashion. Frederick Muller. pp. 299–301. ISBN   0-584-11070-7.
  9. 1 2 3 "Designers Create Exciting Look for Diamond Jewelry". Ocala Star Banner. March 20, 1974. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  10. ↑ Christy, Marian (November 3, 1971). "Jewelry has Occult Theme". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
  11. ↑ Lambert, Eleanor (September 19, 1970). "Ethnic Theme Monopolises Front Seat in Fashion". The News and Courier. Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Roughwood Aviaries run by Clifton Nicholson". Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.