Inspiration: Pre-Colombian Goldwork

I love these bold gold pieces from the Gold Museum in Bogota.  It’s absolutely incredible that the pinacle of style from thousands of years ago can come full circle and rock the runways of contemporary fashion.  Equally amazing is how these pieces were hand-fabricated using the technologies continue to form the basis of metalworking today.

Look out for some pre-Colombian tribal inspiration in my new collection **Connections** launching soon!

Jewelry Meets Illustration

Sparkly multimedia magician Arizona Skye commissioned a custom Amanita Mushroom necklace in recycled copper, turquoise, moonstone, lapis lazuli, chinese jade, and silver.

Doesn’t it look luminous on her aqua-eyed goddess illustration?

Work in Progress

This piece is destined to be a belt buckle.  Both the brass and copper pieces are hand cut, and I think the brass will be riveted onto the copper with silver.  But we’ll have to wait and see what the metal wants to do…

The Chunky Tribal Collection

Meet the latest collection of earth-girl adornments from Full Spiral.  Inspired by swirly tribal tattoos, thick textured metal and earth-toned gemstones, the Chunky Tribal Collection is a tribute to spiral sistas everywhere.

Forest Floor Tiara at the Brunswick Street Gallery

Question: What do art, hard rubbish, and jewelry have in common?

Answer: A special Full Spiral creation – Forest Floor Tiara – which will be on display at the Brunswick Street Gallery during their annual Hard Rubbish Show!

Forest Floor Tiara

The tiara is made of upcycled, reclaimed electrical wire which I’ve stripped, unwound, and retwisted into a fanciful creation of wearable art.  This discarded material becomes luxury when combined with gemstones: peridot, amethyst, Chinese nephertite jade, aventurine, garnet, citrine, freshwater pearl, Czech glass, new jade and prehinite.  I picture this piece atop a natural bride for a foresty wedding.

I would be so honored if any of you Melbourne-dwellers would come visit me and the piece in person and say “Oh, that’s nice!”  Come on over for the opening on August 27!

The show opens on August 27 and runs until September 9, at the Brunswick Street Gallery – 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

Update: The Forest Floor Tiara has been sold to a loving home!  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re interested in a custom tiara of your very own.

100% Recycled Silver, Gold & Copper

Did you know that all Full Spiral Jewelry is made with 100% recycled metals?

I know that you love this earth as much as I do.  And there’s nothing more disturbing to nature lovers than taking a drive in the country, enjoying the bucolic scenery and fresh air, and happening upon a big ugly scar of a strip mine.  Is this kind of destruction really necessary?  When we’re talking about the precious metals used in jewelry, definitely not.  There’s lots of scrap material out there than can be re-milled, and my wonderful supplier, A&E Metals, makes a point of doing just that.  Their company environmental policy states:

Our Commitment to the environment is to use only recycled raw materials wherever possible and to limit our impact on the environment by using the latest technology and our years of experience to manufacture in the most environmentally responsible way possible….We use 100% recycled silver and copper in our silver alloys, and are now pleased to anounce that we are using 100% recycled gold too.

Adornment through jewelry is an important cultural concept: it’s part of a how we express our style, our joy, our values and our personal aesthetic.  So I personally feel that it’s important that we use this expression to communicate a commitment to sustainability.  Talk about wearing your values on your sleeve…or your ears, your fingers, your neck!

Ultimately I feel that jewelry inspired by nature ought to be made in a way that respects The Mother.  I know that many of you share this sentiment.  It’s a chain of love: manufactured in Australia with love, shaped by my hands with love, sent to you to wear and love!

For more information, read A&E Metal Merchants’ full environmental policy here.

Why Handmade Elements?

At some point while travelling down this design path, I made the conscious decision to make all of the elements that I use in my jewelry myself.  Jumprings, ear hooks, clasps – the little details that turn bits of twisted wire and gemstones into something wearable – these have to be fabricated by someone.  There are machines that make them, and it can be a lot easier to order them in bulk and be done with it.

Little handmade sterling silver ear wire with spiral detail

So what’s the point of making these elements by hand?  For me, there are two reasons: aesthetics and integrity. I feel that making everything myself creates a sense of continuity throughout a piece.  When every little detail is made according to my own design sensibility, it creates the sense that everything belongs together.  There’s flow to a piece.  I can do something as simple as adding a tiny spiral detail to an ear hook or decorating a clasp with a matching gemstone, and the piece suddenly feels more finished, more tied together.  It helps gives a piece of jewelry an overall feeling of completeness.

Clasp detail of Blue Lotus Necklace

The clasp is designed to reflect the spirals and petal shapes of the pendant, while the ends of the necklace reflect the wire wrapped style.

Now I don’t want to get high and mighty here.  Sometimes I break my own rules – what’s the fun of having rules anyway if I can’t break them myself?  But I try to only do so when there’s a good reason, either aesthetic or technical.  Maybe I found a really amazing Bali silver clasp with garnet inlays, and it really suits a particular necklace that I’ve made with Bali silver and garnet beads.  Or perhaps I’ve come across a stunning vintage multistrand clasp that gives that classic feel to strung pearls.  I’ve been known to use pre-made headpins on occasion when I really want the bottom of the pin to sit flat, and I’ve used  lobster clasps on bracelets when I feel the design calls for extra security.  But I try to make these exceptions for good reasons, and not simply out of laziness.  Laziness has no place in the artist’s world.

Ear wire detail of divided sky earrings

I've wrapped the matching copper ear hooks in the same style as the hoops and added a nested garnet detail

Another consideration for my type of art is the impracticality of “signing” or “labeling” my creations.  So adding special little details becomes a signature of sorts.  What do you do to make your work – whatever it may be – uniquely you?

Responsibility

The doorbell rings early in the morning, and a mysterious looking package makes itself known.  Wrapped in muslin and decorated with blotches of red sealing wax, it looks like a Victorian relic or a prop from Harry Potter.  The postmark says India.  Thoughts of cooking a vibrant curry for dinner begin to invade my head, and I haven’t even had breakfast yet.

Truth be told, I know what this package contains, and I know that its arrival means that I’m going to have a fun day of play in the studio.  After calming myself enough to make coffee, I attack the muslin and ensuing layers of cardboard, bubble wrap and plastic with a vengeance and a pair of scissors.

Here’s what I find inside:

Strands of crystal quartz, tanzanite, amethyst, apatite, peridot, iolite, moonstone and smoky quartz

Don’t they look so gorgeous in their stranded simplicity?  Sometimes I feel overpowered by how beautiful they already are, and how imperfect any creation that I can make will be, that I am almost paralyzed.  Like a writer pausing over a blank sheet of untainted white paper, I am overwhelmed with the possibilities of what these materials can become.  I’m intimidated by the responsibility I’ve been entrusted with: to treat these lovely little beads with integrity.

Eventually I emerge from the revery, break the spell of insecurity, accept my own limitations, and strike out confidently in the direction of design.  I make and take apart at least a dozen false starts, and eventually I find a vein of creativity that I can mine.

Welcome to the beginning of my creative process.  Can’t wait to see what these gemstones become?

Neither can I.