Hearts on Either Side

It's interesting sometimes how one of my jewelry designs come about, the path to the finished piece is often circuitous and complex and full of accidents and happenstance. The pieces pictured, double sided heart pendants are a case in point. The two images on the left are of one side, and on the right the opposite side. These were both made during the last month, the top one first. The puffy heart shape at the upper left was an example I made to show visitors to the open studio I host at the jewelry building of the Mendocino Art Center how to make raised pillow forms utilizing a die cut out of a piece of 1/4 inch plexiglas and urethane plastic on the hydraulic press. I made several as examples with different textured sheets of copper I had roller printed. Several people were very interested in the process so in the week before the next open studio I decided to make a jewelry piece incorporating it. Top left picture is the first idea I had. As I was fabricating this part I had the thought that I should put some little something on the back as I do with pieces sometime. Well, as you can see in the upper right picture, the back became more complex than I had originally thought, actually more interesting to me than the old front. It was obvious to me then that I needed to construct it so that It could be worn either way. A few days later I took it to the Sacramento Arts Festival at the Convention Center there and really enjoyed showing it to people and talking about the process that led to the design. It sold fairly quickly and I felt a sense of loss because I couldn't tell the story any more. I made the one pictured at the bottom soon after returning home, making a few changes in my never ending search for variation. A couple of weeks later at the Davis Art Center Holiday Fair, the first person that looked at it bought it so I didn't get to tell my story very much. I am now making number 3 in this series and I'm excited about it and looking forward to showing it at the Chico Bah! Humbug Festival of Crafts at which we will start showing our work this Friday, the 16th at 10am. I think I'll make a little picture book so I can still tell people the story even after I sell the piece.

If you are ever in Mendocino on a Wednesday evening between 4:30 & 7:30pm, you're invited to drop by the open studio I host, it runs from the the beginning of September, after Labor Day, to the end of May when the summer session of classes starts. It's taking a break now until January 11th.