Materials: Fine Silver, Bronze and Copper
Dimensions: 2.5" x 2" x 1.5"
Copper and Bronze box features a cast fine silver anatomical heart pendant. The pendant is securely held on the box top with a hook, and the pendant’s chain is housed neatly in the box through a heart shaped hole cut into the lid top.
Photo credit: Amy Hamblin
Amy Hamblin
Seattle, WA. USA
At 23 I dropped out of law school and took a ceramics course. Before I knew it I was back at college studying art full time. Instinctively I turned to organic imagery, and found my lasting inspiration in an anatomy class. That led to a fascination with surrealism, as I find many anatomical details to be visually surrealistic.
In the past few years I have enjoyed working in a variety of scales, my former large-scale multi media sculpture have been joined by jewelry and intimately sized sculptural work. Not surprisingly, these more diminutive objects are organic and surrealistic in nature. I enjoy hand-working the metals and other materials in a very organic way, and the pieces are very happily hammer-driven.
I enjoy making little goofy boxes, my homage to utility. The Heart Box was imagined as a presentation for an engagement ring. The silver heart on top of the box comes off and can be worn as a necklace. The Marching Barnacle Box combines the grit of the copper fabricated legs, with the tiny, round, sterling silver barnacle-lidded box on top, a peachy place to keep an aspirin or pea!
Carpe Diem!!!
These containers and vessels definitely hold their place in the world of stunning art objects as well as in the world of metalsmithing.
Since the dawn of time humans have created containers to hold things that were important to them, from large vessels to hold food and harvests to intimate containers for small precious things. They might hold memories, ashes, medicine, beverage, fruit or food - but all spring from the imagination and skill of the maker. Some have specific religious functions, some are meant for everyday use. When one thinks of a vessel or container the inclination is to think of something with solid walls - yet many of these works involve the exploration of positive and negative space, and the use of negative space to help create the illusion of the wall of the vessel.
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. Participants are from The Netherlands, the USA, Canada, Australia, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Colombia, Romania, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia and Denmark. While most of the pieces are by an individual metalsmith, some are collaborations, one of three artists spanning 50 years.
In total 319 artists contributed 729 show pieces for the permanent online exhibition.
Objects in the exhibition include boxes, lockets, urns, ash containers, bowls, wine cups, reliquaries, match holders, vases, teapots, pitchers, sugar bowls, baskets, nests, pillboxes, clutches and a range of sculptural forms. A variety of techniques are showcased covering a wide range of metalsmithing techniques. Materials used include everything from gold and silver to less expensive metals. Ornamentation includes the addition of enamel, chasing and repousse’, gemstones and found objects.
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.
