The Elephant Parade Pendant
>>>SILVER•FAUNA<<<
The silver section of Eastern Winds, inspired by the fauna of the Savannah. You can't have an ode to Eastern Africa without showcasing the wildlife that makes the lands feel so full and rich. Excited to share with you these creatures less celebrated, but endlessly deserving! 🐅🌞✨
Turning my photographs from this trip into metal has been one of the most rewarding artistic collaborations of my interests. It's truly hard to put into words. But making these vignettes has been truly a pleasure <3
For this piece, I recreated one of the most magical moments from the trip; watching a family of elephants slowly walk by, a slow procession from when they entered an exited sight. It felt surreal. Now, I capture this still from the journey into metal. The pendant itself is a solid thicker gauge sterling silver, with four additional pieces of sterling silver soldered on to create the scene. All of these pieces hand drawn, sawed, filed, and textured to create their landscapes and wildlife, in this case, down to the little elephant toes. A half round sterling vignette frame, with two sterling loops atop to hold a double strand of double roped sterling silver chain closed off by a lobster clasp. On the reverse, a raised pendant with my makers mark.
The pendant measures 3" long and 1" tall.
It hangs on 4 strands of 16" sterling silver double rope chain, meaning 64" of sterling chain total.
The piece weighs .97 oz.
>>> The Eastern Winds Collection <<<
A three part, mixed metal collection, five years in the making. Inspired by a month I spent in August of 2017, with my mother, in Kenya and Tanzania. A huge trip we shared in both celebration and mourning. It was life changing. I came home and drew this collection, although initially much larger... but then my life changed again. Everything was put on hold. This collection (and the handful of copper pieces I made first) all were tabled in the corner of my studio ever since.
Now, after all these years of working on other aspects of my life, it finally became clear I was ready to finish what I started, and to clear those cobwebs from my memory, and cast these idea back into the wind.
The copper/vulture, the brass/sun, and silver/fauna sections, now a whole collection. Set with African Vulture feathers, Egyptian Geese feathers, life casted Wildebeest teeth, and sparkling Raw Tanzanian Sunstone, all found in the wilds of the Serengeti. Images created in metal from photographs I personally took. Inspired by textiles I've decorated my studio with. I'm so thrilled to release this deeply personal, cathartic, and now, only joy filled, collection with you all! 🐅🌞✨