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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
