Modernist-Style Necklace
This necklace is a nod to the Modernist style. The copper and red brass, 3-dimentional, hand-fabricated elements are separated by oxidized silver pieces.
Ginko Leaves Neckace
Each ginko leaf in this necklace is different, each is chased and formed individually and set is a matching silver frame. The elements are connected with tiny silver hinges. the chain is hand-made to match the overall design.
Minimalist tourmaline and garnet neckace
The green and pink tourmaline is complemented by burgundy garnets in this one-of-a-kind necklace.
DNA Neckace
The spiral pure silver chain forming a core of this necklace reminds me of the DNA structure. It is surrounded by rectangular prisms fabricated from oxidized silver wire.
A Trio of Moon Necklaces
Includes the SunMoon (center), the WaterMoon (right) and the Earth-FireMoon necklaces.
SunMoon Necklace with Hand-Made Chain
The lunula-shaped pendant in this necklace was cast from sterling silver. The pure-gold sun rays were added using keum-boo technique. The lunula — a moon-shaped ornament has been used for millennia in various cultures, for instance, relatively recently, as a naja pendant in Navajo squash blossom necklaces, but also throughout Europe and Middle East.
WaterMoon Necklace
The WaterMoon neclace uses New Mexico turquoise. It was cased from sterling silver using the same mold as the SunMoon necklace but has a different pure silver, hand-made chain.
Earth-FireMoon Necklace
This was supposed to be a third necklace in the five Moon-Element necklace series. SunMoon and the WaterMoon were made first. However, the mold broke after the metal pour, and it could not be used any more. I decided to combine the Earth (green fern design ) and Fire (orange flame colored background) in this necklace. The AirMoon neckace will not be made at this time. Perhaps later.
Byzantine-Style Turquoise Neclace
The turquoise pieces were shaped and set in silver. The chain is hand-made from pure silver wire.
Sea Glass "Flower Buds" Necklace
The flower buds in this necklace are made of cobalt colored sea glass. A friend gave me sea glass in many different colors, but the cobalt blue pieces were very small and although I liked the color, I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. That is until I saw a photograph of a cell of an organism. The cell surface components of this micrometers-size organism looked like delicate flower buds and this was the source of inspiration for this necklace.
Azurmalachite and silver bead necklace
The inspiration for this necklace was a gold and lapis lazuli necklace excavated in the ancient city of Ur. It was made about 4500 years ago and is now in the collection of the British Museum. I modified the design by using graduated silver tubing and azurmalachite (malachite ingrown with azurite) instead of lapis beads.
Spring leaves necklace
In this necklace, the pure silver leaves are separated by the enameled beads. All elements were hand-made.
Silver Clouds Necklace
The overall design of this necklace was inspired by the Korean armor, in particular the way chest pates were assembled and joined. The cloud pattern on the individual elements of the necklace was taken from the old Korean metal vessel. The gold accents were applied using the Korean keum-boo technique. Consistent with the oriental aesthetics, the design combines and balances the opposites: the masculine form and function of the armor combined with the soft and feminine cloud design. The alterative way of looking at the pattern on the necklace is the islands surrounded by ocean, like a map. The etched surfaces have the rippled water-like appearance. The necklace is executed in pure (99.9%) silver with 24-carat gold keum-boo accents. The design in etched and the surface of the metal is oxidized.
Enamelled Oriental Tile Pattern Necklace
The large beads in this necklace were made by enameling copper tubing an then painting the floral design taken from oriental tiles with special enamel paints. The other beads are made of azurmalachite.
Elk Ivory Necklace with Hand-Made Loop-in-Loop Chain
This necklace has a fine silver chain made using an ancient loop-in-loop technique. The chain pattern is called a one-way double. The elk ivory ends are set in pure silver. Elk ivory is equivalent to elephant tusks. Elk have two ivory teeth believed to be remnants of tusks from their ancestors.
Aquamarine Necklace with Silver Hand-Made Chain
In this necklace, the aquamarine crystal is mounted in ends with the design etched on their surface. The chain is hand-made of pure silver wire using the loop-in-loop technique and a two-way double pattern, more time consuming than the one-way double used int the elk ivory necklace.
Whilrling Dervish Necklace
A friend gave this necklace a name when I showed her how the pieces in the tassel-looking pendant spread out and form a pattern of a tulip and a cornflower. The pattern was based on a 16th century Iznik ceramic tile, but the same motives of tulips and cornflowers have appeared on ceramic pieces from Turkey and other Middle Eastern Mediterranean countries for centuries to this day.
Enamelled Leaf Necklace with Silver Hand-Made Chain
This necklace has a pure silver hand-made loop-in-loop chain. The leaves are enameled on pure silver.
Enamelled Blue Leaf Necklace with Hand-Made Chain
The chain is pure silver loop-in-loop one way double design, the leaves are made by applying enamel and pure silver wire to pure silver background; the beads are made of lapis.
Enamelled Cloud (Angel I) Necklace
This enameled necklace with an image of cumulus clouds on blue sky has a wing etched on the back side. The enameled pieces were made by first enameling the blue background using several different blue hues, then the clouds were pained with the special paint enamel. The pieces are set in sterling silver.
Fossilized Shark Teeth Necklace
I really like this piece, mainly because it does not look like any shark teeth necklace I have seen. A friend found the fossilized shark teeth on the beach in South Carolina. Pairs of teeth are set in pure silver; the surface of silver is made to look like a continuation of the porous root lobes of the teeth. The chain is hand-made to complement the connections between the pieces. This necklace is also an example of how the appearance of the jewelry changes when it is worn. This necklace looks a bit scary in the photograph. However, when the piece worn, the look is much softer and is perfectly wearable.
Trade Beads Necklace
I wish the beads in this necklace could tell their story. They are vintage trade beads, the kind that was used as a token currency in exchange for goods and services. When I got them they were quite dirty and have clearly been worn by someone for a long time. I don't know exactly where they came from, they may have been traded here in the American Southwest or may be Masai beads, but I am sure they had a long journey before they came to me. I used the beads to make this 5-string necklaces with little chased charms.
Multicolored Enamelled Necklace
In this simple necklace the pieces are made of copper tubing, which was enameled and pained with enamel paints in different colors. The chain is sterling silver.
Sea Glass Necklace
My friend Mary Ellen brought pieces of sea glass from vacation in Mexico. I ground the glass to obtain the flower bud appearance, as the original pieces were much too large and to heavy to make wearable jewelry. After grinding, the glass pieces were individually set in silver clay.
Tuareg Jewelry-Inspired Necklace
The inspiration for this pure silver, etched necklace came from a piece of Tuareg jewelry I saw at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, NM. What intrigued me was how frequently geometric patterns are used across different cultures. This specific pattern, if executed in different materials, could easily pass for Art Deco.
Silver Fan Necklace
The little pieces in this necklace are fan-shapes and have a cloud patters etched and enameled on pure silver. The chain is sterling silver. This is another little necklace that draws inspiration from the Oriental esthetics - the fans and the clouds.
Three Enamelled Necklaces
Each of the three colorful, enameled necklaces was made using a different materials. In the bottom one, the pieces use pure silver and transparent enamels. The middle necklace uses pure silver and opaque enamels, while the top one is in copper with opaque enamels. The enameled pieces are attached to sterling silver chains.
New Pendant Series -- Planets
This group consists of six pendants. They all use art glass beads representing planets in our solar system, starting from Earth out to Saturn. Glass beads were hand made by an artist from New Mexico.
Silver and glass bead pendant -- Earth
Silver and glass bead pendant -- Mars
Copper and glass bead pendant -- Jupiter
Silver and gass bead pendant -- Saturn
Silver and glass bead pendant -- Uranus
Silver and glass bead pendant — Neptune
3D lattice pendant with Australian opal
The pendant is sterling silver in a shape of a 3D lattice. The Australian builder opal is from the Winston mine.
Stargazing Rabbit Silver Pendant
The Stargazing Pendant is a sterling silver hollow form with the etched rabbit and the scenery, and gold keum-boo stars.
Trick Rabbit Pendant
Flute Pendant
Hollow-Form Pendant with Abstract Design
The pendant is a hollow form executed in sterling silver with keum-boo accents on depletion gilded sterling silver strip.
Tall Trees Pendant
This is another hollow-form piece that has been turned into a pendant. The cross section of the piece is an ellipse. The tree motif, which has been etched in sterling silver draws from the Art Nouveau esthetics.
Elephant Tusk Design Hollow-Form Necklaces
The shape of these two hollow-forms was inspired by the Japanese inro. On this pair of boxes, the etched and pierced design was taken from a carved elephant tusk I once saw on TV, probably one of the Antiques Roadshow episodes. The two different geometric patterns actually appear on the same tusk. See the blog for the picture of the tusk. The boxes have openings in the back, which I used to insert small silk sachets with lavender.
Black Tourmaline Pendant
Sea Creatures Pendants
I called this trio of cuttlefish bone-cast silver pendants the sea creatures mainly because their surfaces pick up the pattern of cuttlefish bone, but also because one could imagine that there may be some yet-to-be-discovered creatures in the depths of the oceans that look like that.
Le Corail Noir Bracelet
This sterling silver pierced overlay bracelet uses a design inspired by the Lalique’s perfume bottle design called the Red Coral — Le Corail Rouge. The design on the overlay was etched. The black background layer was oxidized. Not visible in the photo is the custom box clasp made especially for this bracelet.
Starry Night Bracelet
The design on this pure silver, enameled bracelet was inspired by the famous Vincent van Gogh painting.
Abalone (Paua Shell) Bracelet
Every hinged section of this sterling silver bracelet uses a different design of the overlay on top of the abalone shell underneath. The bracelet is complete with the custom-made box clasp.
Blue Chrysanthemum Bracelet
This bracelet executed in pure silver has enameled inserts with the blue chrysanthemum pattern.
Banksia bracelet
A sterling silver bracelet with Australian Quilpie boulder opal from and banksia design. The banksia leaves are made from pure silver and gilded with 22-carat gold.
Petroglyph bracelet
This bracelet was cast from pure silver and gilded using 22-carat gold.
Woven pure silver bracelet
The bracelet is made from pure silver wire using the ancient loop-in-loop technique.
Tree of life bracelet
This bracelet is a red brass bracelet with the tree of life etched into the metal. Parts of the branches are etched trough. The tree is inlayed with an oxidized silver layer.
Petroglyphs Silver Cuff Bracelet
The etched design on this bracelet is either below surface (black, oxidized animals mostly from Sloan Canyon petroglyphs) or raised above surface (gold plant-like images). The bracelet is made from sterling silver. To apply gold detail, the surface was depletion-guilded to bring pure silver to the surface.
Solar system cuff bracelet
This is a sterling silver bracelet with the old-map solar system. The earth is made out of turquoise from New Mexico.
Golden Magnolias and Two Ravens Silver Bracelets
The pattern of the golden magnolia bracelet is etched in sterling silver, then the flowers are keum-boo gilded in pure gold. This bracelet was a wedding gift to a family friend.
Many times as I drive to work in the morning I see a couple of ravens sitting together on a bridge. I have been seeing them for years and when I do, it always feels like a good start of the day. I decided to commemorate them in my Two-Ravens bracelet, although a bridge railing has been replaced with a tree. The design in etched in sterling silver then gilded using keum-boo technique with pure gold.
Silver Waves Etched Bracelet
The design on this sterling silver cuff bracelet was inspired by the Japanese raised maki-e design. The pattern was photo-transferred onto sterling silver sheet and etched in ferric nitrate solution. The surface was oxidized to make the pattern stand out.
Starry Night Silver Cuff Bracelet
Although looks like a night sky, the pattern on this bracelet is the random interactions of gamma radiation with a CCD (digital camera) sensor. The bracelet is made of oxidized sterling silver. The stars are made of red and yellow brass wire.
Hinged cloud bracelet
The bracelet is made of hinged pieces. The pieces were enameled and bezel-set in sterling silver.
Variscite Bracelet
This bracelet has variscite beads of different shapes and sizes. In this bracelet, variscite looks almost like jade, although the two minerals are not related. Variscite is a hydrated aluminum phosphate mineral, whereas jade is the term applied to silicate minerals jadeite and nephrite.
Particle Tracks Bracelet
This is a sterling silver hinged cuff bracelet with a custom-made box clasp. It uses a pattern of particles moving in magnetic field. If a particle has a charge — positive or negative — magnetic field causes it to travel in a spiral. The bracelet was donated to a museum fundraiser to support their STEM programs.
Summer Day Earrings
The earrings are made from fine silver (99% pure). The openings in the the tree branch-pattern overlay are filled with enamel in the bright, summer colors.
Enameled Earrings
Spring and Winter Earrings
Plum blossom design on enameled backgound represents the spring side. The other, winder side has silver “ice” crystals, also on a blue enameled background.
Reindeer Antler Earrings
The small Inuit reindeer carvings in these carvings remind me of the totem pole designs. I got them in Qaqortoq on Greenland. I set these carvings in very delicate prongs, so the original pieces are not obstructed, but the backs are meant to look like Nordic runes.
Elytra Earrings
The iridescent material used in the these earrings is made from the elytra of a beetle. The elytra (singular: elytron) are the hard outer shells used to protect the wings of certain beetles and insects. The material is very lightweight, strong, and has an opal-like depth and color.
Pearl Grape Earrings
The clusters of freshwater pearls look like winter-color grapes. The setting uses fine silver wire and sterling silver findings.
Lapis and Quartz Drop Earrings
Silver Cloud Fan Earrings
These earrings were inspired by oriental esthetics and use the same motif and the Silver Cloud necklace shown in the Keum Boo Gallery. The blue enamel has a pottery-like appearance.
Fan Earrings
The Fan Earrings are decorated with small gold squares, similar to those one can see in the background of many Japanese works of art, such as wall decorations, furnishings, small boxes.
Elytra II Earrings
Silver Maple Earrings
Winter Earrings
These earrings are made of many small pieces of hammered fine silver. They got their name because there is something wintery about the way they look.
Water Leaf Earrings
The Water Leaf Earrings remind me of the water in the Mediterranean Sea. Several different enamels, opaque and transparent, were used in multiple firings in the kiln to create the depth and shading of the “water”. These compliment the keum-boo Night Leaf Earrings.
Night Leaf Earrings
I made two pairs of similar, leaf-looking earrings – both are made of pure silver but one pair is dark (oxidized) - these are the Night Leaf Earrings - and the other is light. The complimentary pair, the Water Leaf Earrings, can be found among my enameled pieces.
Humble Glass Earrings
To make these earrings I first cut small rectangles out of a larger piece of glass and chemically “frosted” the surface. Set in silver against a pierced background they take on a completely different quality.
Cast Pure Silver Enamelled Drop Set with Hand-Made Chain
Azurmalachite Earrings and Necklace with Hand-Made Chain
Mediterranean Coral Pendant and Earrings Set
When I was a teenager, my cousin gave me a beautiful necklace made of Mediterranean coral. I still have it and wear it occasionally. Last year I came across an art dealer who was selling unpolished Mediterranean coral and bought three pieces, which I set in silver to make a pendant and a pair of earrings. I think natural unpolished Mediterranean coral is very pretty and has a lot of personality. It reminds me of my cousin who was a wonderful person with big personality.
Lapis Pendant and Earrings Set
Malachite Earrings and Pendant Set
This Malachite Set and the Lapis Sets shown below are made using similarly-shaped cylindrical beads. However, they are very different. In one the stones are mounted vertically; in the other one they are horizontal. The malachite set is geometric in appearance and the elements have a lot of motion. The lapis set uses a more flowy design but the stones don't move. The two sets: similar elements, yet so different.
Earth-Tone Becklace and Bracelet Set
The bracelet and necklace set in earth-tones is made by enameling copper with opaque enamels. Small pure gold flakes are fused into the enamel for an additional dimension. The setting and accents are in red brass. This set was picked out by a friend, Jeanette, as her Christmas gift. I hope she enjoys wearing it.
Two Cast Silver Dog Brooches
These two dog brooches are based on the zoomorphic Roman province design from Britain (around 3rd century CE). They were cast from the same mold, but the mold was modified after the first pour, so the dogs look different. One dog was depletion-gilded then enameled; the other one was oxidized and got a turquoise eye. They look happy running together.
Two Silver Dog Brooches -- Back Side
Bow Fibula
This fibula was cast in silver. It is based on the early Medieval bow forms that were quite common in the 5th to early 7th century CE. There are Frankish, Visigothic, Slavic, and other examples of similar fibulas, but they probably draw their patterns from the Roman bow fibulas. Yet another example of how certain designs spread throughout very large areas.
Hare with a Golden Leg Brooch
The hare with a golden leg fibula is based on late Roman brooch in the form of a rabbit or a hare (probably 2nd-3rd century CE). The brooch was cast in silver. The casting didn’t work very well, and the rabbit emerged from the mold missing a hind leg. He then was fitted with a “prosthetic” leg, which was cast in a separate mold. The leg was then gilded in pure gold.