2024 Jewelry Trunk Show Sparkled with Talent

Written by Edith Manfred, Photos by Edith Manfred.

Few places in Savannah sparkled brighter earlier this month than Poetter Hall on May 16 and May 17 with this year’s Jewelry Trunk Show, which showcased the dazzling wares of the SCAD Jewelry program’s students, faculty and alumni. The two day show featured dozens of artists with a myriad of different artistic styles within the jewelry making practice. SCAD’s Jewelry program, the largest in the US, uses this event as both a showcase and a market for artists to exhibit their work and sell it to prospective customers. 

Although every jewelry student has the opportunity to submit their work for the trunk show, acceptance is a very selective process. Once their work is accepted into the show there’s the process of packaging, labeling and marketing their work to make sure it’s fully sellable. With faculty help, the artisans participate in a pricing workshop and find their price range and marketing niche. This preparatory work ensures that exhibited artists practice professional business and exhibition techniques.

Though the trunk show is a beautiful exhibit of the jewelry program’s best work, it’s also a business experiment for the artists to see what is most attractive to their prospective customers. Jewelry senior Haven Honeycutt described the trunk show as a “test market” in which he can observe buyer tendencies and interests. While the SCAD-specific market is not completely indicative of average consumer markets, it’s still a useful trial run for artists to gain understanding of their audience. This is Honeycutt’s third year having his work showcased in the trunk show, and he says that each year has helped him with different aspects of his work, from the business of pricing to observing which pieces are the most popular. For a senior like Honeycutt, the collection he had in this year’s show (27 pieces in total) was a commercial-focused breakdown of the larger collection that he worked on this school year. Through individual purchases of these pieces from his collection, buyers can create a personal connection with both Honeycutt as an artist and this specific emotionally-charged body of work. 

Haven Honeycutt’s work

In a similar way, jewelry senior Madeline Severio (selling her work as Madi Sev) sees a variety of value in the trunk show. She can observe buyer tendencies by listening to what people say about her work such as which color variations, sizes and elements she can change to fit her market better going forward. There are indicative things to learn from the show besides the financial side when artists are curious on how to innovate their work in the future. Likewise, having work in the show can show employers that not only is the artist’s work previously exhibited, but it also is guaranteed to be commercially successful and marketable. 

The show is a way to connect with the SCAD and Savannah community, especially as Madi’s work focuses on humanity and inter-human connectedness through wearable art. One of Madi’s 30 pieces in the show was her prized “martini ring,” a sterling silver ring with the signature martini glass shape and detailing at the top. This piece was a celebration for turning twenty one and trying to hold onto the childlike excitement and nostalgia of birthdays. 

Above all, Madi and Haven say, the trunk show is a celebration of the “crazy wild journey” that those in the jewelry program have shared over years working beside each other. Through the trunk show, they get to see individual and collective success within their community. They get inspired by each other, support each other, and get excited for their next chapter in jewelry and at SCAD.