Welcome to the NYIAD Blog...the official publication of the New York Institute of Art and Design. Enjoy our fresh content about the worlds of interior, feng shui, and jewelry design, and wedding and event planning. On the blog, we keep it short and simple, but you can find dive into longer pieces in our regular magazine, Designer Monthly. The best part? All of it is right here at NYIAD Blog...
Get to know some of our regular contributors:
Alexia Rossetti
Raised in Florence, Italy by a shoe designer and a lapidary artisan, Alexia Rossetti was surrounded by art and design since childhood. Her first clear memory as a child was a trip to the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, the famous shoe designer’s museum. A self-professed chocolate snob, Alexia refuses to eat anything but the best chocolate. Led by her nose, she went traveling in her early 20s in search of the perfect chocolate, staying in Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Brazil. While on her chocolate forays there, she also took in the sights and visited some antique stores and famous architectural buildings. Slowly she grew more interested in architecture and interior design than the chocolate. Throughout the years, Alexia dabbled in jewelry design, furniture design, and sculpture before concentrating on interior design. Nowadays Alexia has parked herself in New York, where she designs for foreigners who are snapping up the real estate. On the side, she still has time to consult with chocolatiers in creating unique artisan chocolate.
Caroline Wolfe Papocchia
Caroline Wolfe Papocchia is a freelance event planner based in New York City. She has over seven years of experience as a project manager and production supervisor for a variety of clients and event planning and design companies. In her career, Caroline has worked on public and private events both in the US and abroad, ranging in scale from a dinner party for 10 to an opening gala for 1,500.
Haley Mindes
Haley Mindes arrived in the field of jewelry design in a serendipitous fashion. She traveled to Florence, Italy first to pursue a degree in fine arts. Florence, a center of jewelry design and manufacture for hundreds of years, inspired her to learn more about making jewelry. After several years of working as a graphic designer in New York and taking jewelry design courses, Haley eventually launched a small business in 2003. She combined her graphic skills with metalsmithing, resulting in a line of photo charms that sold to specialty boutiques around the country. Haley currently specializes in mixing mediums, incorporating stones and metals into bags and belts. Her accessories and jewelry can be found at www.haleym.com.
Jay Johnson
Jay Johnson is the Lead Curriculum Developer at the Sheffield School. For thirty years, Jay has worked in NYC publishing, creating content for clients like World Book, Merriam-Webster, Kaplan, Barnes and Noble, and Little Brown. He has been blogging and shooting internet videos since 2007, working for Examiner.com, Williams-Sonoma, and his own blog at Design2Share.com.
Katie Berger
Katie Berger has been a wedding and event planner in the New York area for over six years and owns her own event planning firm, Sara Kate Events. She loves the unique wedding and is currently planning a lavish affair with a Great Gatsby theme. From large scale galas to intimate weddings, Katie enjoys working on all types of events. She is the Student Advisor to the Wedding and Event Planning course.
Nova Bronstein
Nova Colette Bronstein started making jewelry with seed-beads and a 2-foot bead loom as a nine year old. Her interest in detail has remained a constant and she now makes lace-embossed, sterling silver and enameled jewelry in her Brooklyn studio. Nova has worked as designer and maker in many markets from art-jewelry and fashion to hand-made production jewelry and is practiced in a wide array of jewelry techniques from wire wrapping and forging to lost-wax casting. Additionally she is owner/designer of a signature beaded jewelry line, a second line of metalsmithed and enameled jewelry, has a newly launched website and is a contributing writer for the online magazine, Designer Monthly.
Nova started teaching while completing her B.F.A in Metalsmithing from the State University of New York at New Paltz. There she gained a strong technical background studying under influential art-jewelry makers Jamie Bennet, Myra Mimslitch-Gray, John Cogswell and Sarah Turner. In 2010 Nova was selected for the Open Studio residency in Jewelry at The Museum of Art and Design in New York City where Nova has also taught workshops since 2007. The range of perspective and technique, as well as discerning eye for quality gives Nova a unique edge in guiding students in development of their foundational knowledge, expression of personal aesthetic, professionalism and craftsmanship.
Sarah Van Arsdale
Sarah Van Arsdale is a Senior Staff Writer for the Sheffield School and the New York Institute of Photography, and has been writing for both schools since 2001. She co-authored the Sheffield Lesson Book on the history of world architecture, as well as the Lesson Book on designing specialty rooms both for the Complete Course in Interior Design.
Sarah holds a Master's degree in creative writing, and has been a fellow at the Djerassi Resident Artists’ Program, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is the author of the novels Toward Amnesia (1996, Riverhead) and Blue (2003, University of Tennessee Press). Her third novel, Grand Isle, will be published in spring of 2012. In addition to her work at Sheffield, she also teaches at New York University and works as a private manuscript consultant.
