Materials: Aluminum, Brass Chain
Dimensions: necklace is 17" in legnth; hanging elements approx. 1 1/2"-2 1/2" in length
Forged organic shapes using aluminum anodizing process
Photo credit: Skyla McCollum
Skyla Marie McCollum
Lawrence, Kansas. USA
One of my earliest memories of connecting with nature occurred when my mother familiarized me with the willow tree in our front yard. I felt an immediate fascination with the flexibility of the branches. I spent days making small wreaths with the willow branches, scraps of material and buttons.
Also close to my heart are the many adventures I experienced and the life I discovered exploring the woods close to my home. As an adolescent, little did I know the impracticality of planting juvenile pine trees in the shape of hearts; thinking one day, looking down from the sky, those same trees would be grown and now visible as a forest of large hearts.
I was paying homage to my love for nature as a child and I continue to do so as an adult. While traveling, hiking, or just on walks I often collect small branches, seed pods, flower buds, and whatever else I find interesting. I find inspiration in these materials use them in my work; thereby preserving the ephemeral. These fragments of nature would otherwise succumb to the snow, rain, heat, insects, etc. By preserving these things, I feel I am metaphorically preserving my childhood love for the natural world.
Skyla McCollum resides in Lawrence, Kansas and will graduate May 2014 with a BFA in Metalsmithing/Jewelry.
The exhibition explores metal works whose primary theme is color embraced as their primary visual focus, whether that be using colored materials, exploring creating colored surfaces, or encasing the object in color.
As the world's largest jewelry related internet site, Ganoksin strives to develop exhibitions showcasing work from around the world. This exhibition was open to all metalsmiths, professional and amateur, advanced and beginner.
In total 303 artists contributed 814 show pieces for the permanent online exhibition.
The exhibition was curated by Beth Wicker, President of the North Carolina Society of Goldsmiths in the United States, and Adjunct Instructor at Northeastern Technical College in South Carolina. Director of the exhibition is Hanuman Aspler, founder of The Ganoksin Project, the world's largest internet jewelry site.
Hue is one of the primary properties of color, it refers to the place the color occupies on the visual spectrum. Humans have used hues throughout time, to create cave paintings, to decorate themselves, their clothing and their housing.
Different hues have taken on different meanings throughout time. Gold traditionally has been a color of purity - the metal gold is relatively unchangeable, and the hue of gold has come to stand for gods and goddesses, for royalty, for durability and for purity. Red has often meant love, or passion. Hues often reflect the meaning of the seasons, with pastels referring to spring and the burst of new life after the pale hues of winter. Summer is reflected in vibrant, deep hues, followed by the browning of hues in the fall as plants go to seed and die, and the land turns fallow.
The worth of a hue has often been tied to what is necessary to make the pigment that creates the hue, and the expensive involved in the process. Often created from crushed stones that had to be mined and carried by caravan over thousands of miles, or from fermented roots of plants only grown in certain areas, or the carapaces of rare insects - the creation of hue in a way that could be used by man was an involved and generally expensive process.
In today's world metalsmiths have access to perhaps the widest range of materials and hues in the history of man - and in some of the most affordable ways ever.
This exhibition celebrates hue - color - as an integral, inherent element of the work. We talk of the "richness" of color, and examples of this abound here. One expects hues from the colors of gemstones used in metalsmithing, but we also have hues from some less expected places. Glass enamels are an ancient way of adding color, as are a variety of patinas. Today's artists also use synthetic man-made materials to add color in ways that didn't exist a century ago.
We invite you to enjoy this celebration of hue, and the ways hues and their use have changed over time.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/var/albums/Changing-Hues/Aluminum%20Anodized%20Necklace.jpg