Olga's Journey Pendant - Changing Hues

Materials: 14kt yello gold, drusy green garnet, diamond, sunstone and orange garnet. The cable neckalce is stainless steel and 14kt gold.
Dimensions: Neckalce is 18". Pendant measures 2" x 1" x 1/2"

The base of the pendant is cast in yellow gold. The prongs are cast in place. The settings are fabricated, as well is the hidden bale.. All stones are set low into the pendant. The background area is sandblasted.

Photo credit: Christine Dhein

Jo-Ann Maggiora Donivan
Maggiora Jewelry Co.
Oakland, CA. USA

My name is Jo-Ann Maggiora Donivan and I have been a working metalsmith & jeweler for over 34 years. I am classically trained in silver, gold and platinum. My inspirations come from many sources and in this particular case, from a life experience. Olga was a senior member of my family for whom I was put in charge of for her health care issues. “Olga’s Journey Pendant” reflects life’s smooth spots as well as rough patches. The gemstones that were chosen revolve around the drusy green garnet and orange sunstone. This piece is cast as well as fabricated and meant to have a female presence in metal.

My color advisor for this project was friend and mentor, merry renk. She always maintained a painter's eye, even during her work as a metals/enamellist and in later life. Her sense of color use helped me to pick out the gems you see. At for her 94 years of life, Olga taught me that life still holds much color, sparkle and glitz…This necklace is dedicated to both women who knew how to capture secrets & tricks along the way, yet maintain a craftsman-like quality in day to day living. During my lifetime,I have been fortunate to associate with women like merry renk and Olga S..


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.