Oral history interview with Ramona Solberg
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 13 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Solberg, Ramona
label: Interviewer
content: Halper, Vicki
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: American Craft Council
label: Names
content: Bellevue Art Museum (Wash.)
label: Names
content: Central Washington State College -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Edison Vocational School -- Students
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: University of Washington -- Students
label: Names
content: Day, Russell
label: Names
content: Hall, Laurie
label: Names
content: Harrington, LaMar, 1917-2005
label: Names
content: Ho, Ron
label: Names
content: Hu, Mary Lee, 1943-
label: Names
content: Larsen, Jack Lenor
label: Names
content: Lipofsky, Marvin, 1938-2016
label: Names
content: Maloof, Frieda
label: Names
content: Maloof, Sam
label: Names
content: Marshall, John, 1936-
label: Names
content: Pence, Coralyn
label: Names
content: Penington, Ruth, b. 1905
label: Names
content: Slemmons, Kiff
label: Names
content: Tompkins, Don
label: Names
content: Woell, J. Fred, 1934-
label: Names
content: Worden, Nancy
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Technique
label: Topic
content: Jewelers -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Solberg, Ramona
label: Interviewer
content: Halper, Vicki
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ramona Solberg (1921-2005) was a jeweler from Seattle, Washington. Vicki Halper is a curator at the Seattle Art Museum.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 35 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2001 March 23
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.solber01
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Ramona Solberg conducted 2001 March 23, by Vicki Halper, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Solberg's apartment, Seattle, Washington.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Solberg speaks of her family background and childhood in Seattle; her jewelry studies with Ruth Pennington at the University of Washington in Seattle and her use of found objects; her service in the Unites States Army; attending the Edison Vocational School on the GI Bill and pursuing a masters degree in jewelry at the University of Washington; studies with Coralyn Pence; her travels to Mexico and her fascination with pre-Columbian objects; enameling in Norway; collecting beads from around the world; her book, "Inventive Jewelry-Making" (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1972); leading tours for a Seattle-based group, "Friends of the Crafts," to the Middle East, Asia, Antarctica, and elsewhere for 16 or 17 years; teaching at Central Washington State College and creating her first bead and found object pieces there in 1956; her fondness for turquoise, lapis, and coral; inviting Don Tompkins to teach at Central Washington State College; Tompkins's "tongue-in-cheek" use of metals; her desire to make jewelry that can "shake, rattle, and roll"; teaching and workshops; her use of preliminary sketches; her soldering technique; fasteners; the weight of her jewelry; the "restraints of jewelry"; her lack of interest in making matched sets and bracelets and rings; the lack of social commentary in her work; her series of pieces inspired by the book, "Watership Down;" the influence of Fred Woell and his use of "American throw-aways"; her involvement with the Northwest region of the American Craft Council; her association with a group of jewelers in the Northwest including Ron Ho, Laurie Hall, Nancy Worden, and Kiff Slemmons; making beaded fibulas; curating exhibitions such as Ubiquitous Bead (1987) and Ubiquitous Bead II (1998) at the Bellevue Art Museum in Seattle; exhibitions at Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery in Seattle and the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle; working in small spaces; getting into the exhibition Objects: USA "through the back door"; her status as an international artist; pricing her work; her pieces in museum collections; and her health. She recalls Russell Day, Jack Lenor Larsen, Sam and Frieda Maloof, John Marshall, Marvin Lipofsky, LaMar Harrington, Mary Lee Hu, and others.