We are all Pearls...Sade...India Arie thank you for the reminder

We are all Pearls...

created by agitation for agitation...

Sade....India Arie 

. . . sing of this in the song "Pearls"

While the lyrics to this cry for women who are oppressed and have no options gives a voice to the voiceless...it also speaks of the heroism those same women...all women who can take a gran of anything and turn it into something precious...something.  I choose to use my pliers, pearls, moon stone, cooper and aluminum wire, sodalite   white jade, crystals and glass to represent the change that women...aggregated...coming together with men who care for and support them will make for themselves. . .ourselves.   

 

About the design:

features:

• Adninka motif focal Sesa Wo Suban -  "Transformation and change" - pearls, opalite,  cooper beads, sodalite , cooper and alunim wire, white jade, crystal

• Dangle focal;
• 2 -  wire wrapped glass, cobalt blue, "trade beads"
• 1- ceramic elongated drop, blue with  gold-like flakes (has a Lapis Lazuli look)
• clasp can be substituted with a a cooper "S"
• 1 - "star child" symbol (little more than 1" in any direction can be used to join necklace extenders and focal or used alone as a focal.  At the center of the symbol is a sodalite  bead and 2 Montana Blue crystals.
• 12" copper chain necklace extender with small "s" link closures a each end
• 16.5" blue suede and leather necklace or necklace extender with;
• each end of the necklace features copper coils a little more that 3/4" in length 
•  hand made cooper closure with 
•  3 dangles on the closure;
• 2 sodalite  wire wrapped beads and 1 double dangle - copper wrapped bead and sodalite  wrapped bead
• 3 sets of earrings - all sets are finished with a coil
• 1 set of "Sankofa" measure 3-3/4" from ear wire to bottom of coil.  Wire is shaped in the Adinkra symbol of "Sankofa - don't be afraid to go back and get what you forgot."  Ear ring is completed with a 1-1/4" ceramic elongated drop, blue with  gold-like flakes (has a Lapis Lazuli look) 
• 1 set white jade globes encircled by tiny moonstone with a drop of Montana Blue crystal and a tiny triangle of moonstone with a fierce blue fire inside.  (These fantastic bits of moonstone fire came from Turquoise Magpie.)
• a tiny triangle of moonstone with a fierce blue fire inside tops a Montana Blue crystal
• Ear Cuff and dangle - cuff randomly embroiders the ear with  fresh water pearls, sodalite and tiny drops of flashing moonstone.  Cuff ends at bottom of ear and has a  space for dangle to hook into a pierce ear. Dangle is shaped as a   Nsoromma, "child of the heavens  or morning star." 

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE PENDANT/FOCAL:

SESA WO SUBAN (Adninka term)

meaning - "Change or transform your character "

symbol of life transformation

This symbol combines two separate Adinkra symbols, the "Morning Star" which can mean a new start to the day, placed inside the wheel, representing rotation or independent movement.

sodalite = endurance, peace and harmony

moonstone = intuition

pearls = tear drops of the moon

Continuing work on Memory

Memorial Gestation . . .Woven to an adjustable frame, copper coils snake around my wrist like a vine of warm memories. Tiny hematite tubes and copper seed beads flow together into embellished spaces for memories to nest and be nurtured. The open spaces of this cuff are the passages where memories can be birthed. Two multifaceted crystals are conductors of light that radiates my energy to and from the cuff. Smokey Quartz provides spiritual clarity to identify memories and resist the lies of history. Tiny Hematite tubes and beads give substance to the gestation of memories of the past, the present and the future. With this cuff I wear my memories here at the pulse point of my wrist or at the top of my arm close to my heart. With this cuff I am reminded that memories must be allowed to gestate.

I have once again joined the Year of Jewelry . It is a ongoing weekly 'personal challenge' web project for jewelry makers, presented by Creative Jewelry Forums. When I joined it last year, family issues demanded all of my time. Despite the demand or because of it, I didn't stop wrapping jewels and metal, in fact I introduced others to the creative practice. Most importantly I found how deeply satisfying the process is for finding peace during chaos and excitement and stimulation in quiet and calm.

I've continued to work on representing the idea of the power memories. My last blog entry Friday, March 16, 2007, featured a copper cuff that began my consideration on how to represent the theme of memories. Perhaps more accurately, as the cuff evolved and provoked my thoughts on the theme. As you can see in the images from that entry, the copper frame of the last cuff is full of stones, crystals, copper beads and wire embellishments. In some ways the cuff represents the memories of a mature person, crowded, diverse and sometimes requiring a lot of work to gain access to what was. With the current cuff I had -2- goals. 1-to make an adornment that anyone, everyone could fit. The first cuff can only fit a person of size with large bone hands--in short a woman like me. The the new cuff is adjustable.

My second goals was to not fill every space possible with metal, glass and stones, but to leave negative space where possibility for new memories exist. Looking from the other side of my experiences from the last year I have to believe, show myself, that there is always time and space for the gestation of memories.

Why I wire wrap

Wire wrapping. . .I was drawn to the process because it creates works that are one of a kind. Are there machines that do this? Can anybody tell me? For me, going to Target or the Jewelery District downtown (Los Angeles, CA) and getting a glob of manufacture metal and chips of stone like product just doesn't get.

I want stones and glass that have been rolled in the palm of someone's hands as they imagined how the living earth will unite with a living being. The concrete and conceptual. Heaven and earth. I want wire metal made malleable by the warmth of blood pulsing through veins and distributed to soft yet strong flesh.

I want designs that call me from the past and project me to the future.

That is why I wire wrap.

This cuff was inspired initially by Eni Oken's work. It also was inspired by the concept of Sankofa--a symbolic bird of Ghana that flys forward while looking back.

I didn't have a bracelet mandrel so I used a piece of PVC pipe to mold the base.

First step was to wrap 20 gage copper wire around the pipe 9 time. Then I divided the 9 wire loops into 3 sections, a top, a bottom and a center frame shaped into an oval and sandwiched in the middle. With 18 gage wire I wrapped the entire frame, squeezing the center back so that top and bottom frame meet.

Another length of 18 gage wire narrows the back of the cuff to a whisper. This is the place where memories are so ancient we don't even understand them anymore.

Then I began with the loops and the swirls and the twist, all created in 20, 22, and 18 gage wire. I left the center frame blank a wonderful negative space waiting to tell me how to fill it. This negative space represents the present and the future waiting for memories to be lived.

When the future and the present came to me it was in the form of red jasper. So I caught the three nuggets in copper wire cages. Not to imprison them but just to tether them for a moment until I can catch up with the present and past. More swirls, cooper beads and crystals, so that. . .

I Wear My Memories . . .
. . . here. . . on the pulse of my body, at my wrist or at the top of my arm close to my heart.
The cooper wire swirls and coils are like the arteries of my body, pulsating, alive with memories. . .living to make more memories.
The open spaces of this cuff, where the jasper treasures reside are also open for the possibility of new memories to take root.
The crystals are conductors of light that radiates my energy to and from the cuff.
I wear my memories here. . .with this cuff.