This is my first full year of doing large juried art shows and I've so much to learn. When I get a rejection letter, I always write the show director back thanking them for the opportunity to apply and let them know I'd appreciate any comments or critiques they might have concerning my jury photos. Usually, I have no response, but I recently received an answer. The director said my scores were all over the place with two 3's and two 5's out of a possible 7. The only comment was that my images didn't portray a cohesive collection. Well, I have learned so much from Larry Berman's posts that I went to his page and searched for some clarification. I usually show 2 pendants and a bracelet with the colors in a blue/green/neutral palate. After looking at Larry's photos I think this means that not only should my colors be the similar, but that I shouldn't be showing such different types of pendants. I use natural gemstones in their crystal state - just like they came out of the ground, and fossils. The fossils seem to be out of place for this 'cohesive' look.
My concern is that I think I understand that only what you jury in with is what you can present at a show. Some shows allow 20% of new work. My fossils clearly have the same Sterling and Fine Silver work as my other pendants. Should I just leave out the fossils and keep to the natural gemstone pendants and a bracelet? Or, leave out the bracelet and just show pendants? Any critiques are appreciated. I've just started using the graduated backgrounds instead of the black and think I might try this on a couple of applications.
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O.K., I just saw a post by Larry Berman on a mock jury at St Louis in 2013. It all makes sense now. Thank you Larry for all the help. I now understand the cohesive issue and a lot more about how my photos need to look for jury...same tone in the background, let my photos in my booth shot show pieces of my jewelry that I don't include in the jury photos, etc.
I have come to the conclusion that you need to make the pieces with the intention of being a cohesive unit -- like different pieces of the same set. Of course, I didn't get it done, so my pieces this year aren't very cohesive either.