Nova
Artist: Sarah Thompson (Spokane Valley, WA)
Grand Prize / First Place, Mostly Metal
"I am a self-taught jeweler who has been creating since age 14. This summer I came into wire wrapping. It was something I had tried for many years to understand, but as much as I tried, I could not get a feel for the wire. I had the concept down, but nothing more. Then, in August of 2009, I picked up a wire project I had fiddled with a year before and things just clicked. ...Instead of just wire wrapping, I began to weave. I was finally able to transpose the images I was seeing in my mind into reality. ...
"I originally made the chain for my Andromeda pendant, but found the chain competing with it. Here I was with a completed Viking knit chain and nothing to put on it. That is when Nova was born. I soon knew that I wanted to use the two triangle crystals. What I didn't know was how I was going to wrap them. Unlike my other pieces, this wrapping needed to have very little texture. ... This was my challenge, to wrap using mainly smooth lines, which has been the bane of my wire-wrapping existence. Slowly, over the course of two days, the pendant emerged.
"To balance the pendant, I used groups of threes. There are three [fine silver] wires shaped into triangles that then go up and twine around the chain, three sterling silver bead sizes nestled throughout the pendant, and three crystals. My goal when I designed Nova was to create a beautiful necklace that has an artistic flare, is well balanced and striking."
-- Sarah Thompson
Want to see more? Check out a larger view of the full necklace and a larger view of the pendant back.
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