This week’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was to design “modern” jewelry.  I had no idea what that style encompassed. As usual, I tried to look it up on the internet. (Does anyone visit the library for this sort of thing anymore?)

Modern art is defined as works produced during the 1860s to the 1970s and characterized as a movement away from traditional arts and more toward abstraction. That was easy. There’s even an entry on Wikipedia. Modern jewelry, on the other hand, has no Wikipedia entry and no definitive characteristics. Which happens to be frustratingly true of most jewelry styles.  Continue reading →

This week’s challenge theme on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was to design “elegant” jewelry.

When I think of elegant jewelry, I think of pearls and precious gemstones like sapphires in simple settings that are not overly ornate. I tend to work with semiprecious stones like turquoise and jasper, and my designs lean more toward rustic. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pull off “elegant” when the occasion calls for it. Continue reading →

This week’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog is to design jewelry in the “organic” style category. The label “organic” means something slightly different in jewelry design than it does in farming and food production. For one thing, there’s no clear definition of what organic jewelry style is, but there are legal definitions of organic for agriculture and food products.

As far as I can tell from my not too extensive internet searching, organic jewelry can be jewelry that is made exclusively from or incorporates natural materials like carved wood and seeds. It can also be jewelry designed with shapes that evoke a sense of nature, like leaf- and flower-shaped components. Or, it can be jewelry that looks almost alien, with abstract shapes and textures from the imagination of the artist, but still inspired by nature. Continue reading →

This week’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was to create jewelry in a futuristic minimalism style, inspired by the movie THX 1138. Of all the challenge themes this year, this one was the most difficult for me.

The futuristic part was not the problem. I am a science fiction fan from childhood and can imagine what jewelry in the future might look like. It’s the minimalism part that really challenged me. Resisting the urge to embellish made me twitchy. Continue reading →

This week’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was to design jewelry inspired by The Lord of the Rings, or elvish-inspired jewelry in general.  We could also go with medieval-inspired.

I grew up loving the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. Actually, I first fell in love with Middle Earth and it’s inhabitants in The Hobbit. Recreating the Rings of Power is well beyond my jewelry-making abilities, or my magic, for that matter. Ditto the Evenstar pendant from the movies. Continue reading →

This week’s challenge on the Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog was to design jewelry inspired by the movie “Road Warrior” or an imagined post-apocalyptic era in general.

The Mad Max movies are among my favorites, in no small part due to the Australian accents. And then there’s that menacing black supercharged Ford muscle car and all the high speed chasing. I don’t remember much about jewelry from those movies. With one exception. Continue reading →

The theme for this week’s Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog challenge is Edwardian era, or the cable television show Downton Abbey. We were to create jewelry inspired by this era, or as it is represented in the show.

I’ve never seen the show, but thanks to the magic of internet searches, I could find images of characters from it, even some showing their jewelry. I could also find images of and details about Edwardian-era jewelry in general. Continue reading →

The fairy tale theme for this week’s Self-Representing Artists in Jewelry Design blog challenge is the story of Rapunzel. Some versions of this tale are known as the “Maiden in the Tower” or, if you’re a Disney fan, Tangled. The details vary widely among versions yet there is one aspect they have in common: there’s a young woman locked in a tower.

Depending on which versions you read or saw, there’s also a witch (wicked, of course), a handsome prince (or maybe he’s just handsome but not royal), and some super long and strong hair. And of course, this being a fairy tale, there’s also “true love.” These are the symbols and themes I pondered when looking for inspiration for my jewelry design. Continue reading →