I'm new on this site and the art fair circuit. I'm so glad to have found this site and so appreciate all the info given by seasoned artists. I have spent the last 3 days, seriously 3 full days, devouring all the info I can find here about shows reviews, jury images, jury process, etc. 

The last topic I read about is selecting a cohesive body of work to be juried. I make jewelry. I work in enameling  and fine silver precious metal clay. I have made pieces that combined fine silver and enameling. I don't make sets with earrings, necklace, ring and bracelet. The most would be earrings and necklace set. So...the questions are:

1) Should I only submit enameling works and no fine silver PMC or vice versa because the 2 together would not be cohesive? 

2) If I get accepted with only one type of jewelry, does that mean I can't sell the other type?

3) Does cohesive mean same pattern? Or set? Or all of one kind like all necklaces or earrings? I feel it's hard to understand the definition of this when it comes to jewelry.

I have submitted to a few local juried shows with both works images and some I got in and some I don't. Of course I don't have any feedback from shows I didn't get accepted (oh yeah, I read all about getting feedback from jury on this site too. And from a beginner viewpoint, it would be a tremendous help to get jury feedback. How else can I learn?) 

Anyway, I love working with both materials and would not want to give up one of them. Does this mean I should forget about applying to more serious art shows? I would appreciate any input & guidance about my dilemma.

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  • Thank you Larry. Jury images on your art photography page were very helpful. I've got a lot of work to do. 

  • Thank you Larry for your advice. Sounds like I'll need new posters for my booth shot. I did read about this tip from you in other posts. I do try to submit only one item per image although I did see a grouping of rings from an artist who got accepted into a prestigious Oregon show.

    Does "multiple pieces in a single picture are not recommended" rule also applied to a set like matching necklace and earrings? 

    • Look for shows specifying only one piece per image. Milwaukee Lakefront is the only one I'm aware of.

      I have some examples of stuff I've shot with multiple pieces in the images. Scroll down on my art photography page:
      http://bermangraphics.com/digital-jury-resources/jury-slide-photogr...

      You'll find that the multiples are clearly created by the same artist.


      Larry Berman
      http://BermanGraphics.com
      412-401-8100

      • Hi Larry,

        I have a Nikon Coolpix P500 and floor length tripod. I read your post "It's about aperture". I have set up my camera to Manual mode with manual focus on. I did have it set to Close up mode. I can't set my F stop to F16 or F22 as you suggested. The most it would go to is about F8.0 when I manually turn the dial. Would this work or is there a way for me to get it to F16 or F22?

        • F36 gives you more depth of field than f22 or f16. All things equal you should do fine if the lighting matches the camera settings and the camera doesn't move during the exposure.

          Larry Berman

          • Thanks Larry.

  • A cohesive body of work can have many things in common. They should look like they were created by the same person. Color or materials are two of the things they can have in common. If you have similar styles, hang posters of pieces from both styles in your booth for the booth picture.

    Your images are too busy for jury images. Distracting backgrounds and multiple pieces in a single picture are not recommended.

    Larry Berman
    http://BermanGraphics.com
  • Oh I want to attach a few pics of my works to give you an idea but my post got submitted when I clicked on Upload Files link. Probably user error. Here they are and I know my pics are not up to par with others - I'm still saving up for professional photos :-)

    DSCN3487.jpg

    DSCN3157.jpg

    DSCN3518 (1).jpg

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