Maker Crush Monday

I find myself undergoing some shifts in the studio. Less rocks, more found materials, less string, more metal, more settings, polished stones, pattern, and a more traditional "jewelry" look. More labor, and a different kind of love. I picked up some old photographs this summer, and they're working their way into both the book making and jewelry making. So in the spirit of old, ethereal imagery, this week's Maker Crush is Bettina Speckner.

Bettina Speckner studied with both Otto Kunzli AND Herman Jungar at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. She spoke at the SNAG conference a few years ago, but unfortunately I missed most of her talk due to the Trunk Show. She says this about her work:

"I never work with the intention to decorate things or to make them look prettier. I try to discover the soul of an object or the essence of a photograph and want to shape something new which appeals to me and to other people far beyond the optical appearance."

Bettina Speckner combines so many of my favorite things: enamel, pearls, stones, coral and poetic imagery to create relatively simple works that seem to contain their own massive universe, or watershed moment. Her combination of image and precious material speak volumes of un-sayable things. It's that soul discovery, of the object, the photograph and the artist herself, that I strive for in my own work. It's this emotional response to something intangible within the work, along with her aesthetic, that draws me to Speckner's work again and again.

Happy Labor Day. Thanks for reading.

Earrings, 2010

Brooch/Pendant, 2011

Brooch, 2010

Os Argontautas, necklace, 2010

Brooch, 2009