The Evolution of a Bracelet
Earlier this spring, I got back from something I’ve unintentionally come to do every year - my family owns a coastal vacation house that is rented out most of the year, but during the off season, we sneak away for a “working month”. We call it a working month because my husband and a close family friend do all the maintenance the house requires, any projects we’ve been wishing to do there, and I get to spend the month getting really creative and dreaming in my satellite studio without the pressure of production and order fulfillment. The last few years, there has been a lot of wax carving. This is the first step for any of my cast collection pieces, and it’s at once a meditative, creative expression, as well as a meticulous and exacting exercise. Some days I spend the entire day carving one thing, only to break it at the end of the day, rendering it useless, knowing I have to try again tomorrow. On these days, I am thankful for wine and the Vacation Diet (you know, the one you love while you’re eating it, and begin to regret as soon as you start the drive home…). Some days, the process is triumphant and the finished product is so precious and bursting with potential energy that I get it packaged for casting and sent out the very next morning.
During my working month, both of these situations happened - I had successes and failures, I developed new products that I can’t wait to show you and I developed some flops that you’ll probably never see. One of the new things, something I have been dreaming about for a loooooooong time, has finally turned out and I am so excited about it. Some of the cast collection bracelets still had fabricated hooks and clasps that, while doing their job and at least being handmade, weren't quite right.
Now, the Eliza, the Greta, and a new bracelet, yet to be named and debuted (though we are thinking it will be the Madge, after a very close friend - stay tuned) all feature a hook clasp that perfectly marries sculpture and metalsmithing. I’m in love with its curvature - something both beautiful and so functional, that truly elevates each bracelet to a whole new level of badass.
Here is the crescendo of silver: enjoy 🖤