Guitaurus - Bringing this back to Share again

I talked to Gemi Taylor about creating a piece for him using the logo of his company "Guitaurus Music." Gemi plays guitar with Mandrill, has a soon to be released CD on which he is producing and performing and it features the poetry of Maya Angelou.

I started free form wrapping copper on the larger pendent-- 8 1/2" from top to bottom-stop!

Then I tried something a little more stylized, and I wanted to include some significant gems with the copper--turquoise because by this time I had been thinking about the idea of Taurus and steeping the mythology back a culture. Tarsus, Horus--hum! Horus the Egyptian mythical character was married--at one point to Hathor. Now Hathor wore a headdress of horns (bull) with the disk of the sun between the horns.

Okay good size 4". A sun stone at the top of the pendent between the horns. Green turquoise referring back to Egypt, fire agates and reconstituted turquoise detailing the outside of the pendant-stop! What is this I'm not sure. Go back to paper and I have to admit my father's drawing.

Okay, so now I have a template and some raw undrilled turquoise slabs my mother brought from a trip to New Mexico. The finished pendent front and back, 4 1/2." "S" hooks in the horns. Hope you like it Gemi.

Sankofa

In this image the camera's light setting wasn't quite right, but the I'm including it because it best captures the sun lighting up the carnelian. The entire piece is made up of a carnelian ----- and a carnelian briolette from Turquoise Magpie, suspended from a brass frame. My client is going to hang it in her window. I call this piece Sankofa. It will make a gorgeous window and room display.

In the Adinkra African writing system of the Akan people of Ghana and Corte ‘d Ivorie there is for me one symbol that recognize more than any other that life is transformational. That symbol is Sankofa.

Of all of the intrepretaions I found regarding the concept of Sankofa, this text from W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center has resonance for me:

"se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki."

"it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".

The Akan Symbol Project at Marshal University

expands on the ideas of memory and knowledge with the following;

The Akan believes that knowledge must have practical bearing on the conduct of life. This is portrayed by the aphorism:

Nyansa nye sika na woakyekyere asie -

Wisdom is not like money which may be kept in a safe;

or,

". . .one does not collect wisdom in a bag,
lock it up in a box
and then go to say to a friend,

"teach me something."

This second Sankofa piece is a pendant

of onyx and copper.

The idea I'm trying to work on is --our futures are not shackled by our past but given flight by knowledge of the past. Because the symbol is interpreted as two birds

or one bird flying in two directions

or a bird and an egg.

I see the concept of Sankofa as speaking to the multiple identities we wear, the multiple paths we can and do choose to travel and as a result the multiple possibilities we have when we allow ourselves to hear and see the past and the future from the position we exist in today.

Here are a few more images I’ve used to inform my work with wire and gemstones. I love the stylization of these image.

Ancient Future

Organic echos from the past to the future. No I'm not going to bling up the copper. The patina is in perfect contrast to the vivaciousness of the stones. These vibrant chunks of magnesite are from Turquoise Magpie's.


Even though I live 20 minutes from downtown Los Angeles (and you can find everything in the garment district of L.A.) I also buy from Szarka's Magpie on-line store. Okay I'm addicted. The regular updates, beautiful images, excellent customer service (they called me to get the correct mailing address), speedy delivery, and affordable prices, fuel my addiction. It makes me feel very special to received the lovely little parcels in the post and I know I'm going to get exactly what I requested.

It's summer and I'm wearing these adornments to a summer night concert under the stars at the Levitt Pavilion (Pasadena, CA) enjoying "Vive Bazil." The music, the dancing, the crowd, we are all trying to find what is next in this world of seismographic change. Vive Brazil and these copper and magesite adornments remind me to remember the past as I live in the present and look to the future.

Simbi's Ring

This ring was commissioned by Simbi Kali a brilliant comedic actress--3rd Rock from the Sun--and moving dramatic actress--Mississippi Damned--for which I am sure she will generate tremendous acclaim.

I thank Simbi for photographing the ring for me. Simbi is also a photographer who's work goes straight to the soul and is deeply moving. Simbi wore the ring to an opening of her show Fleur's d' Amour. . . take some time and enjoy her images and the music. . .but come back.

I also need to thank my sister, Sharon Terry, for her graphic work on the image to highlight the ring. Her work on that image doesn't begin to tell you about the depth of her talent so just click over to her site and take look. As sisters and artists we have collaborated on a graphic novel "Into Me See"please leave a comment while you are there, it will help develop the upcoming episodes.

Finally a little about the ring. The structure and support of the ring is copper. A small tumbled variegated amethyst is surrounded by tiny amethyst that reflect the color range of the center stone and form the first flower in Simbi's ring. Snuggled next to the amethyst are orange-red hessonite garnets and tourmaline in shades from pink to purple this group of stones echo the flecks of contrasting color in the tumbled amethyst. The orange reds, pinks, and purples form the center of a second flower with petals of citrine. At the end of the citrine petals are pale green Swarowski crystals. At the top of Simbi's bouquet of gemstones and cooper is a tiny cluster of flower buds of tourmaline in shades of yellow, green gold, purple, and dark red.