August 12, 2009
• The undulating line I call a squiggle has been popping up in my work for so many years, it is about time I gave it a voice. Some of its earliest appearances were in clay shortly after I completed my M.F.A. with a major in ceramics. I still have an example of it from that period on the wall of my jewelry studio. You can see two large glazed porcelain black squiggles on the wall behind me in the photo on my website. A squiggle speaks to me of spontaneity, of playfulness, of movement and dance. It is the expressive gesture of a hand, the path of a bird in flight, the bounce of a ball.
• When I worked in clay it took a long time to loosen up with a brush enough to paint a spontaneous calligraphic flourish on a glaze. Once I was able to do that, the gesture that produces a squiggle became my signature on letters and the outside of envelopes and showed up in handmade greeting cards. So, it was not a surprise that the first piece of jewelry that I made in my first jewelry class was embellished with a squiggle. And, it has been reappearing ever since, most recently in an unfinished pendant on my workbench and a just finished pair of earrings.
• Here are the earrings. In the domed circle and the corrugated surface I see a full moon reflected on a rippled lake, and in the squiggle I see the movement of a bird in flight breaking the stillness. I am excited about the new direction the squiggle has taken. •
Earrings, Sterling silver / corrugated, soldered, riveted / matte and polished surfaces / 5/8" x 1 1/4" x 3/8"