Within days of the spill I was finding myself depressed and feeling helpless and maybe even a little hopeless.
As I wrote in an earlier post, I went where I always go when feeling down: to my studio. I pulled out my drawers of beads, vintage buckles and buttons, and stones and just started playing. I was up and down from my stool and felt an excitement that told me I was on to something. By the end of those first couple of days I'd designed 3 pieces, two talisman pendants completed that week: Protection and YinYang (SOLD) but this one was the first one that captured me. For me it's fantastic. It's pulled from my heart and in some ways I wonder how I even came up with it! Its mechanical challenges kept me going for the past 7 weeks.
The processes I used in this piece are: cold connections, wire-wrapping, soldering, felting, drilling, forging and stamping. Materials used include: vintage mother of pearl buckles, copper sheet and wire, steel wire, lead-free anchor chain in gunmetal, shimmering piece of vintage amber, sterling silver lifesaver charm, Canyon Echoes lampwork bead, sterling silver clasp and beads, bolts, anodized aluminum, wool felt, and an acrylic eye. This was very much a labor of love. I hope whoever wears this necklace feels protected with its ancient evil eye symbolism.
I'm very proud and excited to present Breach of Trust. It represents the final straw in my disillusionment with our elected officials, our government watchdogs and regulatory officials. I'm angry at BP, but not surprised. I hope Obama gets a moratorium on drilling, because if he's not successful I fear our stupidity. Yes, jobs related to offshore drilling are in trouble, but the costs we are paying now and potentially in the future are far worse if we don't insure to the best of our ability that we're protecting our earthly home.