Rejected/Approved

SMCK Magazine No.8

Rejected / Approved 

Capitalism is the economic system dominating Western societies for the last four centuries. It has shown remarkable resilience, though not necessarily fairness. Nevertheless, this school of thought produces wealth. Being ‘anti-capitalist’ as a jewelry artist – the latest trend – is like shooting yourself in the foot. 

The explosion in crafts was triggered by increased demand for comfort and luxury by the financially robust class of merchants, freelancers, intellectuals, bankers: the bourgeoisie that made its breakthrough in 17th-century Europe and imposed its taste as it changed the rules of the game. 

The new art-loving class, the middle class, ordered, bought, and paid – in cash.

Today contemporary jewelry’s most loyal customers are under attack: inflation, high taxation, high interest rates, looming unemployment even in highly sophisticated sectors, lockdown-related bankruptcies of small and medium enterprises, international instability due to the war in Ukraine, and luxury goods’ competition from technology products have affected them financially and emotionally.

What is the contemporary jewelry community’s answer to this depressing situation? Anticapitalism…

Academics and jewelry theorists who rail against the markets and inculcate 

students to detest the market may not know how to explain its potential to young designers. The latter have invested time, energy, and money to study a craft – this is their capital. They should not neglect or negate it; on the contrary, they should reject mind-controlling and life-impoverishing ideologies and use their capital creatively to design their own professional success.

SMCK Magazine issue No.8 (72 pages) features:

• Designed to fail

• Adorable and rejected

• Teaching sucked the life from me 

• Are jewelry weeks good for business? 

• Crafts can change society 

• Resistance and memory in Ukrainian jewelry

• Will you Schmuck this year?

• And more…

To celebrate Schmuck 2023 Munich, SMCK Magazine offers readers a digital copy of issue No.8 for free. Download your free copy before 12 March:

https://www.smck.org/mag08.html#modal-payout

* Magazine cover: “Eleven worms brooch”, 2018, by Christoph Ziegler.

Flip the magazine pages online: http://smck.org/mag08-flipbook/mobile/index.html

Buy SMCK Magazine PRINT issue #8: https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2434791?__r=2567867

Read SMCK Magazine No.8 online: http://smck.org/mag08.html 

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