{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O374306"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O374306/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AX6128/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AX6128/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AX6128","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AX6077","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AX6186","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AX6180","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O374306","accessionNumber":"M.11:1 to 3-1992","objectType":"Brooch and earrings","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Elsa Freund was part of the group of modernist artists and jewellers active in the mid-twentieth century in America. She studied drawing, painting and commercial art at the Kansas City Art Institute; followed by  design, lithography and painting at the Colorado  Springs Fine Arts Center; ceramics at Wichita  Art Association; and jewelry at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. She taught at Hendrix  College, Coinvay, Arkansas, Stetson University  and the Art School of the Ozarks. Despite some training in jewellery design in Florida, she was largely self taught, developing her own working methods. She made and sold her jewellery from her home workshop, reputedly so unsure of how to price it that she took inspiration from the day rates used by local plumbers. Her work was an innovative fusion of glass, ceramics and metalwork which her husband, the painter Louis Freund, christened 'Elsaramics'. In the American 'Design Quarterly' of round up of contemporary jewellers in 1959, she described her techniques thus: \n\r\n \"My idea for jewelry making started as an experiment in an art department where no soldering equipment was available. It was a challenge to invent a new jewelry style using materials = readily available with a minimum of tools. After several years of experimentation a certain amount of control is obtained in firing stones although each firing is still an adventure. I never use molds  for the stone shapes. My fingers shape the clay  at will and the finished stone suggests the mounting; the shaping of the wire follows.\"","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Elsa Freund","id":"A15804"},"association":{"text":"designed and made by","id":"x28674"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver and glass fused to ceramic","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006AX6128","2006AX6077","2006AX6186","2006AX6180"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"91 (VA)","id":"THES49703"},"free":"","case":"1","shelf":"21","box":""},{"current":{"text":"015","id":"THES407791"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"015","id":"THES407791"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Brooch","id":""}],[{"text":"Earring","id":""}],[{"text":"Earring","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States of America","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1967","earliest":"1967-01-01","latest":"1967-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs. H. Libby West","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Brooch and earrings. Silver and glass fused to ceramic, designed and made by Elsa Freund, USA, 1967","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Illustrated in Nancy Ukai Russell, 'Modern Jewelry Pioneer Elsa Freund', Ornament, Autumn 1991, p.54."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Design Quarterly, No. 45/46, American Jewelry (1959), pp. 3-63"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ebendorf, Robert. “Elsa Freund and Elsaramic Jewelry.” Metalsmith 110 (Summer 1990): 23–26"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Elsie Mari Bates Freund (1912–2001)- The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.11:1-1992","M.11:2-1992","M.11:3-1992"],"accessionNumberNum":"11","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1992,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Brooch","Earring [1]","Earring [2]"],"assets":["2019LN5542","2019LN5159","2019LN4011","2019LT2305","2019LT1684","2019LT1584","2019LU6621","2019LU4832","2019LW1421"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-30","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}