Neckpiece
Largest pendant: 2.75” high x 1.75” wide x .25” deep
Total Neckpiece Dimensions: 16.5 ” long x 2.75″ high x 25″ deep
Total making time: 100 hours
Inspiration
The designs on the four pendants on this neckpiece are based on a 18th century fabric from Colmar in Alsace. I discovered the fabric in a book that anthologized the history of French design (see the images at the bottom of the page). My discovery of the fabric was serendipitous. I have owned this book for over 15 years and periodically return to it for the shear joy of diving into the designs reproduced on its pages. In 2021 I pulled the book off its place on our bookshelves and wandered through it, being captured almost instantly by the fabric that inspired my neckpiece. This particular fabric was designed and dyed by Jean-Michel Hausmann, who became a famous textile designer in France.
Techniques
After selecting the fabric elements I wanted to use, I drew them and traced the drawings. I enlarged the tracings to accommodate the shrinkage. The enlarged patterns were then transferred to block printing plates which I carved.
Fine silver metal clay was rolled onto the carved plates, then trimmed and refined. The plates were used to trim out the floral forms and leaves in metal clay, that would be used to add dimension to the pendants and to create the charms and clasp elements of the neckpiece. Four of the leaf elements were joined with paste/slip to form the clasp units. All the metal clay parts were then fired and tumbled in a magnetic finisher.
The pendants were then wet-packed with vitreous enamels and fired. Sterling silver and 18k gold was used in the fabrication of the stone settings, links and bails. After soldering, all the parts had a Liver of Sulfur patina added then tumbled again. The stone settings were riveted to the pendant, the rivets were covered with polished fine silver sheet and the gemstones were set.
Materials
Fine Silver (sintered PMC3),
Milled Fine and Sterling Silver sheet and/or wire
18k Gold wire
Vitreous enamels
Tourmaline
Apatite
Tanzanite
Photos by Evan J. Soldinger
About the Artist – Linda Kaye-Moses, USA
Studio jeweler, author and fiber artist Linda Kaye-Moses has exhibited her jewels at major juried shows. She was Jewelry Dept. Head at Interlaken School of Art 1994-2001 and curated the exhibitions: Millennial Metal;The Art of Precious Metal Clay (Bignell Gallery);& Re-Collected/Re-Invented; the Narrative Craft Object (Bignell Gallery). She was a final juror for The Saul Bell Design Awards. Her work has been published in many books, including: In the Picture; Framing the Visual Arts (Oxford University Press, Australia); Art Jewelry Today & Art Jewelry Today 2, 3, & 4; and Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects.
Her work in metal clay began in 1996 when she coordinated the first open metal clay workshop in the USA, and was invited to a Metal Clay Master Class (1996). She began to teach metal clay that year and taught at many locations in the USA and, in 2001, workshops in New Zealand.
She authored Pure Silver Metal Clay Beads. She has received two Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council Grants, three Massachusetts Cultural Council Professional Development Grants; a Niche Award; and was twice a Saul Bell Design Award Finalist. Her work was recently exhibited in Makers and Mentors: The Art and Life of Snow Farm—The New England Craft Program at the Fuller Craft Museum. She was honored when her neckpiece, Artemisia Liberata won First Prize in the international AMCAW 2021 Alchemy Challenge Competition.
Her work can be seen at lindakayemoses.com, where her schedule can also be seen. She will be teaching an enameling on metal clay class for The Enamelist Society conference at Arrowmont School of Crafts in August of 2022 and can be contacted for additional information via her website.
She lives with her husband in an old farmhouse in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, USA, surrounded by lilacs.
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
