Original Winter Necklace

This necklace was the first in my collection of thesis work. It is based on memories and photographs of home while I was living overseas in England. The petal-like, amorphous shapes of the individual necklace pieces were meant represent memory’s often vague, ephemeral nature, while the tree branch patterns in enamel on the surface were etched directly from personal photographs. While I was happy with the result as a piece of jewelry, its intent as a memento didn’t come across to the casual observer—it took too much explanation. At this point, form was my biggest challenge in representing memories. I decided that instead of making pieces about memory’s fleeting quality, I needed to create something that caught those memories, and preserved them.