Way back in the mid 1990's I started trying to come up with some way to showcase my jewelry work. It seemed so wrong, somehow, to spend all those hours designing a piece, creating the focal parts, scouring shows/stores/antique shops/internet for the perfect matching components and finally realizing a design on to then put it away in drawer or jewelry box. I really liked the work Ford & Forlano were doing incorporating brooches into wall pieces but didn't believe my skills were sophisticated enough for that. I also got inspired by all the differing shapes/sizes of glass jars. After pondering this for many months, voila, the "jewelry jar" was born.
Several of the prototypes are still only partially finished from running into technical difficulties I haven't solved yet. Some were not suitable for public consumption. Currently I only have two in stock. One is small, and I hope to get a photo of it tomorrow.
These photos (taken by my very supportive husband, David) show my favorite and best work, in my opinion, to date. This work started life in the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby. I really liked the off beat shape and pedestal. I covered it using the faux turquoise, ivory & coral master class offered by Tory Hughes in an issue of Ornament magazine. The large buffalo conchos are over the counter finds. The small ones are the dress type rivets usually found on better quality women's western wear and I found those at the Houston Livestock show & rodeo. The necklace and earrings also contain real coral & turquoise and are part of the outside design of the sculpture. The piece still looks okay without them, just a little plainer. The inside is lined with a deep burgundy velvet and is suitable for putting other jewelry items in as a jewelry box. And the lid has enough eye pins to hold another six pairs of earrings because I truly dislike having earrings jumbled and tangled up in the bottom of a jewelry box.
I hope you enjoy this piece and I look forward to any comments you have the time to share.
Now, back to the studio.
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