Exhibit celebrates brooching diplomacy

NEW YORK - Here's a brooch you probably won't see pinned to thelapel of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright - an 18-carat yellowgold piece showing a face being punched by a fist.

Still, it was made with her in mind.

"To me diplomacy sometimes becomes a form of verbal punching,"said Daniel Jocz, creator of the "Punch" pin. "It is how I seeMadeleine Albright, as a person able to deliver the ultimate punchinnegotiations."OK, so maybe it's not the right message for talks on Kosovo.But Albright has made a habit of wearing brooches with subtlepolitical messages - like the tangled spider-and-web pin for MiddleEast peace talks, or a serpent brooch as a reproach to an Iraqidiplomat after his country's newspapers compared her to a venomoussnake."Read my pins," she has quipped.In tribute to her political jewelry, 61 artists from 16 countrieshave created 71 brooches that they would have Albright wear whileconversing with the world's top diplomats.They are being displayed in an American Craft Museum exhibitcalled "Brooching it Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madeleine K.Albright."Some brooches make strong political statements, some are patrioticand others are simply whimsical. Some are gaudy and huge - as largeas 9 inches - making them unwearable. They are made of gold, silver,diamonds, plastic, paper and other objects.Albright agreed to be photographed for the cover of the show'scatalog, wearing a silver pin of the Statue of Liberty's head.A handy piece for her long negotiating sessions with worldleaders, the 4 1/2-inch brooch has two round watches for thestatue'seyes.Gijs Bakker, the Dutch artist who made it, explained that onewatch is set upside down "for Mrs. Albright to know how long herappointment will last and the other for her visitor to know when toleave." c