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Traveling Exhibition

Each year the League of NH Craftsmen’s Retail Gallery managers select a League member craftsperson to showcase his/her craft in a special traveling exhibition. The exhibition appears in each gallery for one month, giving New Hampshire residents and visitors many viewing opportunities.

Intimate Details and Continuing Conversations

by Kerstin Nichols

On display from June – December, 2008

The managers of the League of NH Craftsmen Retail Galleries have selected juried member Kerstin Nichols as the featured craftsperson for the 2008 Traveling Exhibition. Kerstin, who is juried in metal, creates unique jewelry and sculptures that reflect her passion for nature and natural processes. Her exhibition, entitled Intimate Details and Continuing Conversations, will be on display at each of the League’s seven retail galleries starting in June and running through December. (See below for schedule.)

Kerstin’s jewelry and sculpture is in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Glass at Wheaton Village in Millville, NJ, and in other public and private collections throughout the United States. “My work is an ongoing dialogue with what I see and find in nature,” said Kerstin. “It focuses on the underlying beauty in the ordinary ‘stuff’ of life… like a beach stone tumbled smooth, or light washing across the surface of a landscape. I translate these subtle qualities into sculpture and jewelry.”

Kerstin’s work is based on lifelong interests in art and science. Growing up in New York City, she attended a progressive elementary school that cultivated her interest in art and in learning, which continued through high school where she attended one of NYC’s specialized public high schools, Music and Art. “Even back then, I gravitated towards working on three-dimensional pieces, particularly jewelry,” she said. She decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in biology/geology at New York University, but still found time for her art. In fact, her studies of molecular structures and historical geology still plays a pivotal role in her approach to her creative work, as well as her teaching.

After graduating from NYU, she decided to take a break from science and was invited to work in a two-year apprentice program at the Kulicke-Stark Academy (currently, the Jewelry Arts Institute), where the focus was on ancient jewelry making techniques.

After her apprenticeship, she became a faculty member at the Institute, where she taught for seven years. She also started a small fashion jewelry and accessories business, working almost exclusively in colored pencils as her raw materials. “I was getting frustrated working with gold and silver, which require labor-intensive techniques and costly materials, so I experimented with other materials. Making an Egyptian styled collar necklace out of gold and silver pencils was my way of poking fun at the more traditional materials of jewelry,” said Kerstin. One of her pencil necklaces made during this period is now part of the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s permanent collection.

Kerstin left New York City in 1988 to attend graduate school at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where she received a master’s degree in fine arts in sculpture. (Concurrent with her life as a jeweler she had begun to work in glass and move more in a direction of sculpture, and graduate school gave her the opportunity to explore both more thoroughly.) After graduation in 1990 she moved to the Upper Valley of Vermont, which borders New Hampshire, to be close to her father. She soon became associated with the League of NH Craftsmen’s education department, Craftstudies in Hanover, and has run its metals program and studio since 1991. In the late 1990’s Kerstin began to miss her connection to jewelry and began to focus her personal work again in this direction starting with a small collection of custom jewelry she sold privately. She became a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen in 2000. “It was a great opportunity to show my work, but I was also drawn to the importance of the League and its mission,” she said.

With her background in science, metals, and glass, Kerstin makes jewelry using a variety of materials and technical processes. “No matter what direction I have taken as an artist I find myself continually drawn back to the many challenges of making jewelry. My work uses simple shapes, subtle textures, balance and rhythms that are pulled together to respond to the movement of the body who wears them,” she said.

She has taught metalsmithing and sculpture to all ages and experience levels for close to three decades. Kerstin’s goal is to instill an excitement in what her students are learning that goes deeper than the mere making of beautiful objects and the mastery of techniques. “I love the dialogue and the creative dance I have with my students…they really inspire me,” said Kerstin. “We make marvelous discoveries together. I am proud of the fact that I have never had a student copy my style or work…each has found his/her own inspiration.”

Each Retail Gallery will have a collection of Kerstin’s work, including earrings, bracelets, pendants, even a tiara, as well as special pieces made for this exhibition. “I have produced custom pieces that are meant to be displayed as sculpture and worn as jewelry,” said Kerstin.

The schedule for Kerstin’s Intimate Details and Continuing Conversations exhibition is:

June Hanover, 13 Lebanon Street, 603-643-5050

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

July Center Sandwich, 32 Main Street, 603-284-6831

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Sunday, 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

August Wolfeboro, 15 North Main Street, 603-569-3309

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm

Sunday, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

September Meredith, 279 Daniel Webster Hwy, 603-279-7920

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Sunday, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

October North Conway, 2526 White Mountain Hwy, 603-356-2441

Hours: Monday – Sunday, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

November Concord, 36 North Main Street, 603-228-8171

Hours: Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm

Saturday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

December Littleton, 81 Main Street, 603-444-1099

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10 am – 6:00 pm

Sunday, 10 am – 5:00 pm