wings and things

I am always looking at jewelry. Most of the time it’s inspiring, but almost as often, it’s daunting. My skill level is sooooo basic. I’m still working up to what humans could do without most tools about 3000 years ago. So when I see superfantastic pieces made by the world’s most prestigious jewelers from a time when craft was sought and valued, I die a little inside. Then I suck up my resolve, and say, if you don’t try at all, you’ll be that much further from this level of talent.

So I print this pretty pretty pretty pendant and start to sketch on it, seeing how simple I would have to go to attempt to make something like it. I realize during this process that it’s totally ok to make jewelry inspired by jewelry. I’m always seeing press about jewelers and artists and it’s always something catchy, like, inspired by phobias, or vices, or hello kitty, or consumerism, or traveling, or being an editor at vogue, or being rich, or whatever. I’m inspired by so much crap, there is no WAY i could ever sum it up. So let’s make jewelry inspired by jewelry. Or rocks. Or by desire. Maybe desire is the best way to go with this? I see things, i want them, i find ways to wear them. That’s really the essence of it all.

So, here is my drawing:

i started tracing, then filling in. You can see the derivation, yet I still feel like I came up with something unique. This is important to me, as I think copying is lazy and yucky.

I liked it! I decided to leave the holes from where the stones were empty. They remind me of  brass knuckles, or bullet holes, or something machined. This whole design is really right in line with what’s appealing to me most of the time. It’s not totally geometric, nor is it entirely identifiable, but you could see many things in it. Is it a wing? A leaf (it started as part of a leaf)? A bird? A weapon? A way to open boxes? Is it organic, or architectural? Savage or subdued?

Right ok.

So then I have these pretty beads that I’ve been wanting to use…

square glass beads, matte and opaque red and white, strung with oil slick black/blue and gold plated counterparts

Take these two things, combine them with the “Authentic French Fashions of the 1920s” book that I am in love with lately, and you get looooooong necklaces.

Here are some process detail photos:

i hand pierced the design out of both brass and copper

i soldered a tube onto the back so that the pendant would lie nicely along the line of the necklace as opposed to dangling from it

after sawing, soldering, pickling, brushing, and sanding, they are ready for the tumbler

Then they came out of the tumbler and i strung them on the bead strings and here they all are!

and there you have it! two long necklaces. I can’t decide which one I like better. I’m working on a pair of earrings in this same design right now too!!! So many tiny holes to drill…