Several years ago, I worked at Urban Electric, a lighting company in Charleston, SC. I was in the crafts department, fabricating brass and copper fixtures. There was also a glass department, and that is how I met Tony. Years later, he contacted me about his mom wanting to have her wedding rings made into a teardrop pendant for his sister, Anna. Their father had passed away and the idea to use the bands together for a teardrop defined this bespoke jewelry project. In phone conversations with Tony's mom, she wanted to transform the wedding bands into a teardrop pendant in memory of Anna's late father and as a gift to Anna for her 40th birthday.
parent's wedding bands, used for the gold casting of the teardrop
sketch and wax carving before lost wax casting
showing scale of finished necklace
modeling finished pendant
For the texture on the teardrop, I chose to use this shimmery application that I create with an inverted diamond bit and a pneumatic hammer. I normally use this texture in some of my pieces and refer to it as "Sand". For this project, I had the idea that this texture applied to a teardrop shape would show how water reflects light. I was really please with the result.
teardrop's textural details
It was such an honor to make this special necklace for Anna, a lovely family heirloom memento she wears everyday. I'm so thankful that Tony reached out to me and connected his mom to my work. This was a truly sentimental bespoke jewelry project. Repurposing and transforming jewelry that has an emotional impact are the bespoke projects that resonate with me. Although the design is more simple than some of my recent work, I loved returning to my lost wax casting roots that juxtaposes a simple design with a complex emotional component.
~bec
Leave a comment