James A. Parker Jr. was an important San Diego Artist-Craftsman. An early charter member of San Diego’s Allied Craftsmen, Parker was a nationally regarded silversmith. He was inspired to work with enamel on copper by close contact with fellow Allied Craftsmen Ellamarie & Jackson Woolley, and Barney Reid.
Parker taught photography, art and English for the Grossmont Union High School District. He was an early member of the Allied Craftsmen of San Diego and exhibited his fine silver work in numerous national exhibitions. He designed rings, pins, tie bars, pendants and cuff links executed in a “robust and forthright style.” The masculine quality critical to many of his pieces probably stems from his initial impulse to design for himself.
Parker’s jewelry appeared in Arts & Architecture and Craft Horizons magazines and he exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Crafts’ Craftsmanship in a Changing World exhibition in 1956. He was the only member of the early 1950s Allied Craftsmen, besides the Woolleys, to exhibit at California Design in the 1960s.
Parker became increasingly involved with enameling in the 1960s. He joined a growing group of San Diegans, including Margaret Price and later Phyllis Wallen, who entered the Allied Craftsmen with another specialty but became absorbed with enameling. Parker was later a member of the Enamel Guild in Spanish Village.
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