Inspirations | Sherry Cordova Jewelry

25 June 201131 August 2017

Outta My Head, Into Metal

The 2011 summer edition of San Francisco’s Metal Arts Guild newsletter showcased me as an artist member. Since the newsletter is printed in black and white, we thought you might like to see some color pictures of the inspirations and work described in the article.

On a SCUBA diving trip to the Sea of Cortez in 2009, a pod of dolphins played with the boat while we traveled to the dive site. Luckily I was taking a picture of a flying dolphin in the boat wake at the same time one of the larger dolphins did a belly flop, soaking my back.

The flying dolphin that saved the camera

The dolphin who soaked us with a belly flop near the bow

Once we were in the water, the dolphins apparently stayed close, although out of sight.

Under water we were treated to an amazing experience of being encircled by a large school of sardines during the entire dive. Usually a school will come across divers, or vice versa, and keep traveling. The three of us watched in amazement as the school changed shapes and directions and yet stayed close to us; we all knew this was a special treat.

When we surfaced from the dive, we noticed that the dolphins were nearby and asked the boat captain if he’d been watching them during our entire dive.

The captain told us that the dolphins were circling us throughout our dive, thus explaininig the mysterious behavior of the fish school. The wall of sardines had been so thick that we missed seeing the dolphins on the other side of the ‘wall’.

The eye of the swirling school

“Swirling School” Pendant

Even while diving, I knew I had to recreate this experience somehow in jewelry. I wanted to elicit the sensation of the school swirling around us, and the individuals in the school, as well as the space in between the fish and us.

“Reflections” Earrings

I began by creating swirling filigree forms. And, I also designed and made some earrings that incorporated open space, togetherness, and yet non-uniformity.

Something was still missing that tied the whole experience together. I had a vague idea that I wanted the “Reflections” style earrings to be static yet kinetic. While I let the idea simmer in my head, I wore a pair of earrings that reminded me of my goal.

Prototype Earrings

Almost eighteen months after the dive, here are the earrings that were percolating in my head all that time

Sterling silver "Sea of Cortez 3D Kinetic Earrings" — “Sea of Cortez 3D Kinetic” Earring Extenders with Stud Earrings

9 January 201010 January 2010

Nudibranchs: Inspirational Creatures

Nudibranchs continue to be inspirational creatures to me.

The colors

The colors all around them

The shapes

Their own personal adornments

How they seem to reshape themselves

They inspire me to create filigree bracelets

24 November 200931 August 2017

Taking Shape: Throw back to the 40s and 50s

Urban Renaissance Show — “Urban Renaissance” Show

Last Sunday I spent a couple of hours as a show docent at the ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, California.

My piece “The Earth is Our Ashtray” Ashtray is in the show along with the work of over 40 artists from the Metal Arts Guild based in San Francisco.

Copper ashtray edge detail: grass and plants trying to take root

I was very pleased when a friendly woman told me that the ashtray made her think of ashtrays she remembers from when she was growing up: styles from the 1940s and 1950s. The ashtrays she remembers often had a tall center and curved and angled sides. I was pleased because those are the ashtray shapes that were in my head when I was creating the copper ashtray.

: Forming copper over large mushroom stake

To form the tray, first I used shears and a large mushroom stake, then I moved on to using a shot bag ,and then an anvil with a nice pointy horn.

Adjusting the copper ashtray on a shot bag

Anvil used to sharpen fold of copper. The anvil needed some cleaning before it could be used….

3 November 200931 August 2017

“The Earth is Our Ashtray” Ashtray

Ideas born a year and a half apart come together this week.

When I painted a large ceramic globe bead with fine silver as a class exercise, I wondered to myself what I’d eventually do with it. The bead came out of the kiln looking like the earth would after we’ve caused some serious damage.

One day I found countless cigarette butts on the beach in the surf zone. We also find them on the street outside our house, waiting to be washed down into the gutter which leads to San Francisco Bay if we don’t pick up someone else’s trash first.

The question: “Is the earth an ashtray?” kept popping into my head.

The Earth is Our Ashtray Ashtry Fine silver, copper, ceramic, wooden matchsticks. Hand fabricated, kiln fired, torched — “The Earth is Our Ashtray” Ashtray by Sherry Cordova. Fine silver, copper, ceramic, wooden matchsticks. Hand fabricated, kiln fired, torched

Also last year, the Metal Arts Guild of San Francisco (of which I’m a member) proposed a show called “Urban Renaissance”. I decided it was time to make an ashtray tying all these thoughts together. You can read the artist’s statement for the piece and also see it in person at the ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, CA starting Friday November 13th. The show’s opening reception begins at 6pm.

Urban Renaissance. Metal Arts Guild. Berkeley CA

URBAN RENAISSANCE

CONCEPT: What does it mean to live, work, dress and move in today’s urban environment?

“Urban” means many things today: cosmopolitan and sophisticated, popular culture and ethnic diversity, street savvy and fast pace living, plus museums, shops and a multitude of architectural styles. Our cities throb with energy, creativity, and diversity—5 star restaurants, upscale fashion, high tech, and a banquet of cultural wealth contrasts with congestion, pollution, homelessness, and garbage-laden alleyways.

Urban Renaissance explores these contrasts through the use of materials, form and construction, drawing from a spectrum of conceptual pieces to wearable jewelry, sculptural works to wall-mounted art, traditional metal work to pieces which utilize alternative materials.

7 September 20096 September 2009

2010 Calendar Picture

Souls Medal of Honor Fine Silver and Ribbon Necklace — "Souls Medal of Honor" Fine Silver and Ribbon Necklace

I learned the other day that three pictures of my work will be included in a 2010 Calendar published by the San Francisco Bay Area Metal Clay Guild. Today as the random picture generator flashed pictures by on my computer, I noticed the location that was an inspiration for one of the pieces. I’d chosen red ribbons for the ‘chain’ part of the piece and this is probably why…

Mayan building in the museum at Copan Ruinas, Honduras

The granulation on the tombstone portion was the beginning of the piece.

Granulation and metal clay created to look weathered and worn

I’d been thinking about making a Day of the Dead piece for over a year, so the recent pictures taken at the Mayan ruins museum at Copan Ruinas were great to have.

Skull and Bones Installation at the Museum in Copan Ruinas, Honduras — Skull and Bones wall installation at the museum in Copan Ruinas, Honduras

I etched the pictures into copper and used the etched plates to texture fine silver metal clay for the decorative beads holding the ribbons together. The effect of this above photo as an etching plate is very subtle as you can see on the end cap.

Very subtle detail on fine silver endcap

The skull clasp was a little tricky to make by both molding and carving the separate pieces.

18 August 200917 August 2009

Large Rays

A mobula and two spotted eagle rays on one dive. Beautiful.

16 August 200917 August 2009

Swirling Schools Video

Video taken on the dive that inspired the “Swirling Schools” necklace and earring designs.

13 August 2009

Creation from Inspiration

The large school of fish swirled around us for our hour long SCUBA dive, from the surface to depth and back to the surface

On a recent SCUBA dive, bottlenose dolphins kept a very large school of sardines swirling around us for the entire dive. The school moved around circling at different levels in the water and changed direction in all three dimensions. The amazing experience is something I wanted to capture in a jewelry design.

Earrings sketches made on the beach with recycled sterling silver pieces in process

Sitting on a beach after the last dive of the trip, I drew up some sketches. The sardines and the reflections on the surface of the water, from both above and below, were crudely represented. Originally I was going to use filigree wire to represent the fish; knowing I wanted independent wires, I evolved the design to be made with flat wire which is sturdier when sections are left exposed.

Pelicans diving into Sea of Cortez, frigate and seagulls circling and the jagged landscape

Recycled sterling silver, flattened and annealed for the second time

I knew I’d want to start the designs with flattened recycled sterling silver wire, and that they would need frames to contain the designs.

Gear jig for creating zig zag wire by hand

Zig zag wire would give me the repetitive yet uneven look of water surface reflections. Fitting the wire into the frames and soldering it in place is tricky even after annealing the wire for the 3rd time in this process.

The zig zag wire needs tension against itself to hold it’s shape and thus becomes a spring constantly trying to jump out of the frame. Soldering the edge of the form into the frame first helps, then it’s another one or two or three tries to solder all the joints together cleanly.

Flattened sterling silver wire becomes frames and also fills the frames — Flattened sterling silver wire becomes frames and fills the frames

Flattened wire coiled up inside the frames makes nice random shapes that can be coaxed into being 3D to mimic the schooling fish.

As with the zig zag wire in the “Reflections” pieces, the flattened wire in the “Swirling Schools” pieces needs three or more annealing steps while going from round wire to the final form.

Layout of necklace to determine how many handmade small square wire jump rings to create and solder on

Finding the balance between tension and annealed wire is tricky with these pieces as well. The 3D swirls have much exposed single thickness flat wire, making the soldering a bit of a daredevil feat.

Side angle of Swirling Schools necklace — Side angle of "Swirling Schools" necklace

One of the final steps previously unmentioned is a good clean in an ultrasonic bath to clean off all the filings from the ‘finishing’ of the pieces.

Reflections and Swirling Schools recycled sterling silver jewelry heading into the ultrasonic bath — "Reflections" and "Swirling Schools" recycled sterling silver jewelry heading into the ultrasonic bath

When I saw the pattern created on the water surface, I had to take a photo because the type of surface patterns were exactly what I was representing in the “Reflections” pieces.

Reflections and Swirling School jewelry in ultrasonic bath for final cleaning — "Reflections" and "Swirling School" jewelry in ultrasonic bath for final cleaning

1 April 200931 August 2017

Sheet to Rocks

My recent experience in a chasing and repousse’ cuff bracelet workshop was very enjoyable. Davide Bigazzi is a great instructor; the three of us all learned a lot and two of us walked away with bracelets that were almost done. The other Sherry in the workshop finished hers!

I spent the day after the workshop finishing mine. Sawing, filing, and finishing … here it is:

My inspiration for the bracelet was this photo taken at dusk, years ago, at Poipu Beach, Kauai.

Davide Bigazzi is a great instructor; the three of us students all learned a lot and two of us walked away with bracelets that were almost done. The other Sherry in the workshop finished hers!

If you’re contemplating taking a workshop from Davide, I highly recommend it. Besides all that you’ll learn, it is therapeutic to hammer away on the metal. 🙂

22 March 200931 August 2017

Humpback Whales: Breaching and Singing

The picture of a humpback whale breaching was taken on a recent trip to a dive site. The underwater video from on one of our dives allows you hear the whale singing.

We were underwater when this underwater earthquake hit. The quake was very loud underwater and reverberated unlike anything we’d heard and felt before. Which makes sense, since it’s the first time we’ve been underwater near an underwater earthquake! We were confused, because we’d been listening to the whale the whole time and it suddenly sounded very different. 🙂 The sound made sense the next day when our dive master told us there had been an earthquake. One of her dive master friends had also been underwater to hear it and figured it out when the quake was mentioned on the evening news and the times matched.

What does all this underwater stuff have to do with my artwork? The article I wrote for a zine explains.