Tiara made with glass beads by ElizabethJohnson, enameled .999 silver, continuum silver, diamond dew drops and diamond headed screws for easy removal of berry leaf clusters for any repairs needed.
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Very cool. Great attention to detail!!!
I just read… 3.5 years!! So impressive. Something to reach for.
Beautiful!! Congrats Jo!!
Spectacular result! Those berries look real. I especially like the gooseberry, but they are all wonderful. Kudos for the leaves tok and the persistence to see it through. Wow.
That is remarkable!
This is absolutely gorgeous. Those berries look perfectly ripe and edible and even the tears on the leaves?! Woah! I’d love to see process pics. Especially the repousse or chasing for the foliage.
Really spectacular.
Oh Jo that tiara is exquisite! I salute your absolute mastery of the craft as well as the execution, not to mention the sheer dedication of three and a half years to the project. I love the overall natural look of the foliage even down to the caterpillar chomped leaves!
Cheers and admiration from Willie
I’ve been asked to add images of the process. There was a LOT of experimenting especially with the enameling. Because of the high-ish cost of both fine and Continuum silver I chose to sort out all of the engineering and fabrication in copper first.
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Wow! Thanks so much for sharing these images and the story of making this beautiful piece!
Jeff
I’ve never used Continuum silver. Are there any issues enameling on it?
Jeff
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This is truly delightful!
No issues at all. Though I used fine silver for the leaves because annealed fine silver is super easy to chase and my hands are getting pretty trashed after 55 years at the bench. Oh and a side note…Those chasing tools Tim and I still use were made by Stephan Burchs from building spikes he scavenged from a Nazi internment camp during WWII. Before the war he was a goldsmith for the House of Faberge. Attached find images of the tools as well as some of his monogram samples. Mind you Stephan shaped and polished those tools on rocks, sand, leather etc. He would make trinkets from scrap metal and trade the guards with them for food. We plan on leaving these items after our deaths to the Oregon Holocaust Museum.
Bela Katz was another work camp refugee. As a child he was a medical experiment where Joseph Mengele removed the middle finger of Bela’s right hand all the way to his wrist. Then he was put to work in a munitions factory to see how much weight he could lift with the missing bones and tendons. This however did not stop Bela from becoming another incredible jewelry master. Tim and I never ever forget that we had the great good fortune to learn from some incredibly skilled craftsmen. History and stories like that do a great job of keeping one humble.
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Oh Jo, what a history these tools carry. Weeping.
Jo,
Thank you so much for that beautiful story of how Art overcomes trauma. I wept. Last night I heard from a dear, very troubled friend who endured unspeakable trauma as a child. He wrote of how he struggles every day with people bemoaning their own problems, which pale when put beside his horrid history. I didn’t know how to help him. Now I know one way. When Bela lifted that mangled arm he was reminded of his trauma, but also of beauty and art. The latter won over the former, eventually. Wore away the trauma in tiny, tiny yet beautiful steps. May it be so. Thanks so much for this and all you do. -royjohn
Thank so much for sharing these stories Jo! Truly inspirational. Plus, amazing artistry!!
Jeff
Holy moly! This is an amazing story to go with a beautiful piece. Thanks for sharing. I’m humbled by the hardships and inspired by the grit of these people. Just wow. Gorgeous work.