The Light of the World

Those of you who know me already know that I love using evocative (sometime provocative) quotes to complement my jewelry. I'm an avid bookworm and am infamous for peppering conversations with arcane underused words. My husband always gives me the eye-roll when I pull some old-timey phrase out of my hat. There are so many nuanced words out there - why stick to the same boring limited lexicon?

When I'm reading and come across a passage or phrase that haunts me, I dog-ear the page so I can come back to it and pull the quote. Sometimes they're humorous, sometimes beautiful, sometimes they hurt.

My bread and butter is 20th century fiction---pre-1980s, if I can help it---and I've been on a huge William Kennedy kick lately. His Ironweed series mixes darkness, humor, beauty, and verve in a really delicious way:

" 'Four hundred dollars there, boy,' he said. 'Feast your eyes. The sky's the limit on this trip.'

I took the money into my own hand, counted it (fifties and twenties), tapped it on my knee to even its edges as I would a pack of cards, folded it, felt its thickness and heft.

'It's nice,' I said. 'What are you going to buy with it?'

'I'm going to buy the light of the world and bring it home,' Peter said.

'Where's the light of the world?' I asked.

'I'm not sure,' Peter said, 'we'll have to go shopping.' "

When I was creating these polybells, the little radiant textured suns never really struck me until they were already formed. Earthy warm hues, abstract glyphic textures, ragged organic forms. I formed these from polymer clay, textured, cured, painted, and sealed them. They're deliciously lightweight. Once I looked on the finished bells, I knew I needed to give them a name that dealt with light. The above quote was just perfect.

Art inspires art - a wonderfully endless circle!

Happy Wednesday :) 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

A Time Before Kings

Every so often you either stumble or make a calculated fall into a design or an aesthetic that really takes you. More than just an "oh wow, I really like how this came out" kind of way. But in a "THIS" kind of way. 


As I've continued to play with copper and fold forming in the studio, I found myself gravitating toward elemental glyphic shapes over the last week. No complicated over-wrought heavy designs. Just simple eye-catching statements that end up saying more while actually saying less.

 



The end result (or perhaps just the beginning?) is a series I'm dubbing "A Time Before Kings", due to the primitive ancient finishes and the glyphic symbology. My love affair with purposeful firescale results in pops of thick blood red while pockets of raw copper and blackened darkness add light and depth.  






I considered using these metal charms as part of larger designs, but in the end decided to let them speak on their own. 

Sometimes you need a break from the norm so you can explore further along down the path.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy