FORGED
Forge: to shape slowly and steadily, with skill and intention.
in metallurgy: to increase the hardness of metal by aligning the interior atoms through heat or pressure.
familiar forms
I forge familiar forms with the strength of my self-of-three-years…
a strength I - just recently - learned how to hold in my self-of-three-decades.
I work with metal in the same way it’s been shaped for thousands of years - with a hammer and an anvil.
The only externally powered tool I use is a drill, which a recent discovery suggests were used to make jewelry 70,000 years ago.
Each piece is forged, individually, by the energy of my hands, hammer, and heart beating with skill and intention.
They possess a balance of lightness and strength beneath a skin-like sheen, a result that cannot be replicated by machine.
every detail re-engineered
thicker wire hammered to hold depth and presence,
wrapped connections creating a stronger bond,
and a new system of clasps that have neither right or left,
but are held by “infinity”.
to me, they’ve come alive, and they speak
Each shape shifts from a symbol into a story…
…to light our way
…to dance with time
…guiding my mission: to translate the voices of an animate world.
shape shifting
Each shape has a smaller and larger version.
Choosing between them, you can decide what kind of presence that symbol has at this moment in your life, whether it is subtle (smaller), or at the foreground (larger).
When two necklaces are worn layered, the one worn above represents what is rising, the one worn below represents what is falling away.
STRENGTH and CONNECTION
[close up of wrapping]
I have thickened the gauge of wires I use, balancing lightness and strength.
I now use thin wire to wrap the shape and chain together, which create the strongest possible connection - much stronger than soldering (melting). This technique can only be done by skilled hands.