Jewelry at ACC Baltimore: Part One

Choosing favorites among the more than 200 jewelry exhibitors at the ACC Baltimore Show this year is frankly impossible. Just getting to see them all is a challenge, and the array of innovative work is nothing short of mind-boggling.

But we'll take an admittedly inadequate stab at summing up the jewelry part of this ginormous exhibition. Among the many jewelry exhibitors, three aesthetics stood out: tidy, exuberant, and fuzzy.

We'll start with fuzzy. A number of artists are incorporating color in their work not by setting stones but by adding felt to their metalwork. Cara Romano recently added felt-plaid swaths to her line of simple felted mounds on silver. "I love this new look," she says.

Michele Friedman uses felt in a similar color-blocking way, but incorporates stripes, dots, and other simple geometric patterns.

Juleann Benkoski is a first-time exhibitor who adds seed beads and tiny stitching to the felt in her rings, cuffs, and neckpieces, lending a delicacy to her sweet pieces.

Susan Sanders is a veteran maker of neckpieces who recently began working in felt. She uses no metal; her magnetic clasps are handcrafted resin. Her handsome pieces, in a range of wonderful color palettes, work as a sort of intricate collar.

Who knew jewelry could be so soft and warm?