Jewelry 2: Neckpiece Summary and Review

To recap everything, my intention with thi project was to speak about the LGBT issues because that's something very important to me.  But I realized it wasn't personal.  It was a story to tell about it's not mine to do so.  With that, I had to start all over and start from scratch.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but Thomas, a boy from my class, asked me, "What's your favorite thing in the world?"  My answer was my house in Thailand.

In Jewelry 3 class last semester, I did a container project and it was about my family as well.  It was about my immigration to America and why it was significant.  I wanted to do something, not along the same series, but the same genre.  I wanted to be about my family, about my home, my birthplace and where I truly feel at peace.

It's hydraulic pressed with the form with 8 sides, an octagon.  I chose this because at our house, it has these shelves built inside the wall for display.  And my house is also a jewelry store, and the ring holders were octagonal shape.  These were made for display and to uphold the precious things and I wanted to uphold my family.  The number 8 is also significant because it is our house number, but it is also the sign of infinity and how our family is really forever.  That's how the front came to be.  The background is the word for 8 in thai.

When you open it up, I wanted the purse clasp, maybe because I'm ridiculous, but the balled up part of the clasp make an 8 or infinity and I want that to be one of the detail as well.

Now, when you open it up, the left side is this frame that is inspired by the shrine we have in our home and it is to uphold monks, important people in history and family that's passed away.  I wanted to bring this in, and no my parents are not dead, but in a way they are... they are dead from my life, they are not with me and I want to uphold them.  I did lamination inlay with brass on nickel silver because these are two really strong metals and when you uphold somebody, you give them respect and love and trust and all these strong feelings.  I wanted the metal to match the feelings that are tied.

Behind those frames, there are cut up pieces from my mom's letters, copies.  When I moved to America, my mom wrote me these letters tell me and my sister's many things, of how she loves us, how we were her strength and even though others viewed her as having a black heart, she still sent us here because she knew that in the long run, it would provide us with a better future.  So I took copies of those letters and cut out the parts that mean so much to me and stick them inside there.  Even though people might not see  it and understand it but it has a relationship with me and that's the most important.

To the right, we have an etched photo of my parents, I want to see them all the time and have them with me.  It's a picture of them when my sister and I were young and they still love each other then.  And it has a small frame to frame their picture.

On the back has a picture of myself as a child and it's to remind me that I was happy and didn't care about what people thought of me, and that's who I should be, not carefree but happy.

Finally, I bought the chain and I want it to be circular shape, so it looks like eight and infinity.  And at the end of the chain, I used a toggle and the ring part is actually an 8 as well.

Review:

I am overall happy with my work.  It's one of my best work.  There are some mistakes that I know exist but I love the patina I did.  I love the puns and allusions to the 8 and infinity.  I love the relationship it creates and shows and has with the wearer, me, because it shows me and reminds me of things that I should never forget.

I did a 3 knuckle hinge and it's not harder to do 5 or 7 but I love the number 3, it's my favorite number, it's the number of god and 3 forms the strongest shape and that's a triangle.  And i want the thing that bonds all of these pieces together to be something that was strong and it's nickel silver and that's God's existence.

I did the hinge in 2 hours, it wasnt that bad.  The more I do it, the more I get it. Not a problem.  I had a problem with the patina because the color I wanted was a heat patina but after I waxed it, it didn't stay, so I had to use the dye oxide patina.

i thought about the bail afterwards and that gave me a bit of difficulty but I manage to figure out a way to make it work which was nice.

In general, I love my piece not only that I think I did a pretty ok job fabricating it but the meaning it gave me, the feeling it gave during the process, it meant so much.  And it's givin me meaning to certain things again.  My story is not earth shattering or ground breaking, but it's a story... a story that many can relate to and it's a story that needs to not be forgotten about where we come from and how it's made us who we are.  It gives me a feeling of hope again.  It was a great experience doing this project.  It was awesome.