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Welcome to Creative Wire Jewelry, a forum for all those who are interested in all aspects of creating beautiful jewelry from wire. I'm your hostess, Metallique. Visit with us and learn more about making wire jewelry, or share what you know with others like you. Thanks for visiting with us! -Metallique
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Everyone here is pretty good about not flaming each other, that was one of the reasons this forum was formed to get away from that because it was so prevalant on other forums. Disrespecting our members in not tolerated. Differing opinions is unavoidable, but being able to express them in a mature, non-confrontational way and without fear of reprisal is paramount. We extend that courtesy to our members, and it should go beyond that to everyone.
(Thanks to Lori for her eloquence)
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Critiques
These guidelines are courtesy of Jan from the Jewelry Artists Network
What is a critique?
A critique is a formal or critical appraisal or evaluation of ‘something’, in our case, a piece of jewelry or component of jewelry. It allows an ‘objective’ person to give an assessment including, but not limited to, improvement advice and ideas. Ideally, the analysis should contatin both positives (this was good) and negatives (this needs work).
Structured critiques are an invaluable process for an artist to learn, grown, evolve, and an opportunity to help particpate in the same process for someone else.
General guidelines:
Try to be objective, while personal taste can play a factor, its not a major part of a critique….leave it at the back door if you can, If you MUST, try something like, its not my style, but..and then go on to give your critique.
Divide your critique into two sections if possible –
No improvement needed - what you think works well or is done well in the piece, and why it fits or works.
Suggested improvements – what seems ‘off’ and suggestions for what might work better or areas where artist may consider more practice or effort in perfecting the technique
For pieces which you honestly think are done well and you have no ‘areas of improvement’, considering doing a critique focusing on what elements seem to really work, bringing special attention to areas of technical or advanced excellence, this will help those with less experience learn and improve their own work.
Remember, its OK to pass…..if you find nothing compelling pro or con about a piece, let it pass. This is NOT the place for general comments such as “Nice work” or “Good job!”
Consider the following for critiqueing jewelry pieces or components:
Design (composition) and Technique (execution).
Design -
Composition
rhythm or flow
unity (do all the elements go together? Are they all handmade and if not, would the piece benefit from handmade findings, etc)
balance (weight, color, positive and negative space)
is there a focal point or is the piece too busy with no ‘eye stops’?
does the setting highlight the stones (if applicable) or does it overwhelm them?
Technique –
is it well executed (if it’s a herringbone wrap, does it look like one, or is it a tangle of wire?)
tool marks
sturdiness of overall piece (will it fall apart under normal wear? are any aspects suceptible to water damage?)
finished (are all edges filed, wire ends tucked in)
correct weight of wire for size of piece or heaviness of stones, etc.
If its glass, do edges appear clean, are there cracks, bubbles, etc (and pardon me, I’m not a glass person, we can revise this!)
In some cases…….
Originality – this is included because we all start somewhere, usually by completing tutorials for techniques which are project based. We create the item in the tutorial project. IF we are familiar with an artist and are looking for them to begin reaching BEYOND the basic “Preston Reuther pendants” or Connie Fox bangles” (and no offense to EITHER of those artists…I ADORE the connie fox type bangle!) then originality MAY be something we consider. But use this area with caution.
Finally --
Harsh words are never necessary in a critique.
Heed any specific concerns of the poster asking for the critique. (i.e if they ask about the bail, be sure to address the bail! If they don’t want feedback on colors (for WHATEVER reason) then try to ignore the color in your critique)
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Signature and Animation Guidelines
We know that many people like to use signatures and graphics, but we are more interested in what you have to SAY on this forum, rather that what you are "wearing" with your post. While DelphiPlus has the luxury of blocking signatures, basic and advanced members do not - and those on dialup (and some of those are paying by the minute for internet access) suffer the most.
Please remove your signatures if you have more than 1 or two small images, or if your sig takes up more than 1 screen, or takes more than a few seconds to load.
We've put together a quick set of guidelines for signature sizes, and would like to ask that all members try to observe them. Please be considerate of your fellow members, and help teach others principles of good design, and good netiquette.
Total sigs should not be over 50K, if at all possible.
The sig with a short message should not be more than one screen with no scrolling required, and message after message with the same large sig is bad netiquette.
Learn to delete sigs (click in sig block, ctl-A, delete).
Learn to downsize graphics, using most appropriate format. See
http://www.walthowe.com/pubweb/gg1.html
Check your table and image widths, to make sure they're not forcing others to scroll side-to-side. 400 - 450 pixels should be maximum width for all images and tables combined. Percentages are better than pixel widths for tables.
If you need any help resizing your signature or graphics, please do ask. There are plenty of people that can either lend a hand, or teach you how to do it yourself.
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Here you can see:
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