Artists, Gil and Irena Tsafrir, have used their respective skills to create a beautifully varied and diverse line of jewelry. Their line, which is available in the Etsy store, zulasurfing, is full of unusual ideas — it is fun, bold line.
I love it when people really get their own work. Being able to articulate your point of view to yourself allows your work to have a consistent voice to others. I think that can be said of Angi Glenn-Quincy. She called her Etsy story “Tiny Armour” and describes her designs as being inspired by “texture, geometry, mid century modern design, rainbow colors, and all aspects of nature.” In her work of shapes and symbols, I see all of that and more. The words that come to mind are “graphic design jewelry.” For my money, the whole line hangs together all the better because she understands her own work.
As a side note, I have to commend the liberal use of brass. As we know, the cost of precious metals has gone through the roof. Brass allows Angi to offer affordable pieces to her customers. But, aside from that, I love brass. It has a beautiful, warm color and can take on a patina that gives it such character.
Cloudburst Earrings - by Noelle Powell
These little guys are very familiar items to anyone who knows me. I made them myself and, ever since their creation a couple months ago, I have worn them frequently. To an experienced metalsmith they are very simple pieces to fabricate. For me, not so much. I sketched out a design that was small and would require some tiny torch work specifically to have a reason to experiment with that skill.
The bottom of each earring, the “cloud,” was simply cut out of brass. As I have worn these, the brass has turned several different shades. I haven’t polished them and I just let them go until they finally landed at the patina you see today. When I cut out the brass, I left little tabs which were then looped over and the ends soldered down. Thus, the tubes were made that the earring wire goes through.
The earring wires are silver, of course, and they gave me the chance to practice using the torch to ball the silver. On these, a good eye would notice that the silver is a bit pitted, which, as I understand from my teacher, means that I let the torch stay on the metal just a nanosecond longer than I should have. Practice, practice.
What was I thinking when I designed them? I was trying to achieve that casual functionality that I appreciate in jewelry. The functional component (the earring wire) as design element. I wanted to create something that worked with negative space and that had some movement. In the end, I really like them but I think it could be done better. I intend to make another version in the future with, perhaps, a focal point that has a more fluid shape.
Bread and Cake 