United States
Pam Freese
“Magnificent Shadows”
Lilly Pad Necklace
I interpreted the theme, “Magnificent Shadows”, to mean that the image’s shadows would be more interesting/have more color intensity and picked waterlilies, because of the opportunity to incorporate both shadows and reflections. The necklace includes a two-sided cloisonne/champleve enamel pendant, handmade sterling silver necklace, plique a jour accents and semiprecious stones.
I redid this piece, because the first necklace with 3 enamel elements did not lay nicely and looked awkward. The final necklace has a single two-sided enamel piece, smaller sterling silver ying/yang fish elements with pique-a-jour eyes and stylized sterling silver flowers/lily pads with semiprecious stones (to attach the enamel to the chain and create a clasp). While I added textured fine silver to the front of the enamel pendant, it’s not evident in the final piece. I had significant challenges with the back side, primarily bubbles (corrected) as well as changes to the lily pad color blending after multiple fires (I enameled the backside first). I simplified the enamel element as the textured element across its top distracted. Having a pulse arc welder enabled me to assemble the elements in a manner that would not have worked if I were limited to traditional soldering techniques (at least for my skill level); I’m still learning how to effectively use the welder.
Moon Necklace
I created a two-sided cloisonne/champleve keum boo necklace to depict the magnificent shadows of the moon. The shadows were supposed to be the more interesting/visually exciting elements of the piece. The lunar necklace was designed to present key lunar phases (including eclipse) as well as interpret colorful names of the moon (Orange, Yellow, Winter, Blue, Pink, Blood Red). The moons on the front side of this reversible piece depicted these colorful names as well as an eclipse; the smaller moons used keum boo on sterling silver to depict the phases. The moons on the back side were blue moons in different phases; the smaller sterling silver moons used texture to depict the phases. I created a three-dimensional moon for the clasp. All enamels used were transparent and unleaded.
This was the first time I’d created two-sided cloisonne/champleve enamel elements using the technique from Sandra’s teaching videos. While I didn’t encounter issues with the fabrication of the enamel elements, it was easy to confuse the visual orientation depicting the phases so that they were the same front to back and hung properly. Since I restrict my palette to unleaded enamels, it’s probably more difficult to achieve the colors I want and I tend to use color schemes that work more easily with unleaded enamels. While I am competent at soldering, some of the fabrication process would not have worked if I didn’t have a pulse arc welder.
