Inspiration
I was lucky enough to be Celie Fago’s apprentice from 2001-2010. This piece was the zenith of my PMC work! I made it in 2007. Initially I was very interested in setting stones in PMC and I started with the ones that could be fired in place, I did a lot with tiny moonstone and garnet cabs and I wrote an article on the subject for Step by Step Bead Magazine.
But what about the unfireable, large, irregular stones? I had no desire to create a plaster footprint or do any extra work to insure my stone would fit. I was on a quest to figure out exactly how big to make the bezel (to account for shrinkage) so that the cab would fit right in once the piece was fired.
Techniques
Through trial and error I discovered that scanning my cab on the scanner/copier/printer bed and enlarging the cab image in photoshop by 118% accounted for the shrinkage. (Later a mathematician explained why 118% made sense for 15% shrinkage.) I used the paper templates to create my settings.
I used PMC Paper for my bezel walls. Everything was attached and constructed in clay and then fired in the kiln. (Since the invention of PMC FLex, I make my own textured metal clay strips for my bezel walls.) I set many, many stones this way as individual pendants on chains but really wanted to put my skills to the test with this piece.
This was also the first piece where I cut windows in the backsheets to create these inset/double textured settings. I wanted to make a showstopper and these pieces of Chinese Turquoise just came together when I laid them all out. I loved the colors, sizes, shapes and the unique and ancient looking Collar they made all together.
This piece definitely challenged me and took about a week straight to make. It is featured in several magazines and books including Tim McCreight’s book PMC Technic for which I wrote a chapter on setting stones in PMC. At the time people in our PMC community used the phrase “Kahn Bezel” to describe using this technique and that was really very awesome!
Materials
Chinese Turquoise
PMC+, PMC Paper
Sterling silver
Photos by Robert Diamante
About the Artist – Jennifer Kahn, USA
I always knew I wanted to work with my hands…make a living from my hands. I’ve had a love of and fascination with jewelry for as long as I can remember. The path unfolded before me, my senior year at UVM, discovering PMC and meeting renowned jewelry artist Celie Fago. For 9 years I was her apprentice and teaching assistant and I traveled with her around the country and abroad.
I’ve been selling my jewelry locally in Vermont for over 20 years now and my work is in 80 shops, galleries, general stores and yoga studios. I’ve made 7500 sales on Etsy and my jewelry’s been included in exhibits in the US, UK and Japan. My work’s been featured in top jewelry magazines and several books and made the cover of the Lark book “Stitched Jewels”. I love what I do and feel very lucky to be doing it!
Superbly Sintered: Masterful Designs in Metal Clay celebrated the very best designs from metal clay artists around the world.
22 pieces of exceptional work were chosen by a distinguished jury. The exhibition was shown at the Sinter Conference in Pittsburgh, May 2022
