The fourth issue of Litushim is published amidst a reality of profound regional rupture and upheaval, and from within this context, it chooses to present a position that seeks to find a horizon of optimism. Not as a denial of the situation, but as a conscious choice and a stance that understands creating as a space of action, responsibility, and hope.
The issue appears following two months of “0.01 Contemporary Jewellery and Metalsmithing Events”, a diverse series of events organized by the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and Metalsmithing in Israel, held between December 2025 and February 2026. These included a central exhibition of the Association members at the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem; a conference on contemporary jewellery at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and gallery talks and accompanying events. This marks the first time that the field of contemporary jewellery and metalsmithing has operated as a community positioning itself within the Israeli art field. It is no coincidence that the exhibition design incorporated curtains that needed to be drawn aside in order to view the works. The drawn curtain is the screen that opens onto the field.
This is the first issue of Litushim magazine to describe the activities of the Association from which it emerges and for which it operates, summarizing and documenting several of these events through a broad observation of contemporary jewellery, turning from the inside outward (or vice versa).
In a foundational article, Einat Leader traces the development of frameworks for in-depth discourse in the field of metalsmithing, from the exhibitions of the arts and crafts society in Britain at the end of the 19th century, through the metalsmithing fairs that developed in Europe, the USA, and the Far East, to the 0.01 events.
Impressions from the first conference on contemporary jewellery and metalsmithing, held at the Israel Museum in January 2026, are presented in an essay by Erika Tamara Traubman, who sketches the portrait of a “converging field” that articulates its place within the art field through jewellery, materials, and diverse voices.
The Association exhibition Melting Point is also presented in this issue through a video work by Avigail Kapon, which documents its complex process of installment.
“0.01 Events” grew from seeds that were planted in the field of Israeli contemporary jewellery years earlier. In this context, Kobi Rot wrote a few words in memoriam of Sari Faran and Gallery Periscope, which over the course of three decades consistently presented contemporary metalsmithing.
The local metalsmithing field does not operate in a vacuum, but as part of a broad and compelling global domain, in which many annual gatherings and events take place. Naama Ben Porat visited one such event, Obsesed! in Amsterdam, and describes a single-day dérive – from morning to night – through a city swarming with diverse jewellery events.
Thus, the issue proposes an accumulative reading of practice, in which meaning is constructed over time, through the relationships between making, community, material, and space.
