Contrast, Variability and Motion

The natural world is the starting point. I watch the motion of waves at the beach, the swaying grasses in the river, the connection between the tree trunk and its branches, and the patterns created by falling leaves. It is the relationships among the shapes, colors, and lines that build up the image or structure. After working with metal (primarily silver) for many years, I became interested in exploring a material that is, in many ways, silver’s opposite – paper. Metal is smooth, hard, sinuous, formed, and, in the case of silver, a luxury. Paper is textured, soft, two dimensional, an everyday material. The juxtaposition of metal and paper explores the contrasts. It also creates lines – an edge, a boundary, a path. The curves of the metal are emphasized by the placement against the geometric shapes of the paper. The differing materials can either oppose or reinforce one another. Relationships are dynamic, and I have been interested observing the effects of setting different elements in motion. I was trained as a social scientist, looking at the impact of changes in one or more variables. My jewelry, it turns out, continues that exploration of the effects of context on the relationships among different elements in a piece. What happens when the surrounding materials change?