Celestial Jewel Narratives: Sky Gazer’s Brooch

In 2019 I started making what I now think of as Jewel Narratives pieces.  Using rings inherited from my grandmothers I made two brooches in folded box forms, and a ring.  Then in lockdown I made Gifted and Found, a pendant in an oval form.

When seen at shows alongside my other work, the responses to these pieces were often heartfelt and emotional.  I wanted to make such pieces for others, but there seemed to be a disconnect in the communication of this.  So I decided to make ready-to-wear Jewel Narratives pieces of which the Sky Gazer’s Brooch was the first.

I chose sky gazing as a theme because I think of myself as a Cloudwatcher in terms of my practice.  Cloudwatching is a metaphor for daydreaming, woolgathering, lollygagging etc., and I find that if I give myself space to cloudwatch, it feeds back into my life and practice in ways I find interesting.

The oval form of the brooch was tricky to construct at that size, (h:60mm w: 70mm d: 10mm) as essentially, the smooth-surfaced bottom of a stone-hammered silver wall has to be soldered onto an undulating, stone-hammered silver surface.  I used 18ct gold solder for the overlapped wall and hard silver solder for the main construction as well as the fixings on the back of the brooch.

The first form I made was unsatisfactory, later becoming part of another piece. Serendipitously the second form, as seen above, was perfect for the brooch I had in mind, a little more oval and a little less round.

Every element in the assemblage of the Sky Gazer’s Brooch relates in some way to the sky. The Zuni word for turquoise translates as ’sky stone.’  The oxidised ellipse with diamonds alludes to pulling the curtains snugly around the face and under the chin when looking out a window at the stars at night.  Ancient Egyptians associated lapis lazuli with the night sky.  The unpolished labradorite slab, tied on with silk alludes to stormy skies. (I bought an entire collar of labradorite beads for that single piece, as its blue flash, or labradorescence is beguiling.)  The honey toned, golden citrine alludes to the sun, and for me, the Sky Blue topaz represents those bright, light days of late spring and early summer when sky larks sing in cloudless blue skies.

The Sky Gazer’s brooch was made in the very nick of time for the Goldsmiths’ Fair catalogue shoot in 2021 and meant that I had to make other pieces in this vein so that the brooch would not be the only piece made in this new way of working.  The labradorite is secured with 18ct gold wire under the silk. I alloyed the 18ct gold that surrounds the lapis lazuli and the citrine myself, as well as the stone-hammered 22ct gold that surrounds the Sky Blue topaz.  The settings are fixed in a way that makes them appear to float in the space that surrounds them, with the citrine set high to balance visually with the depth of the Sky Blue topaz.  This also means that the elements look as though they might be placed rather than permanent.  If you’re familiar with the Sketch Box and Sky Scraper collections, you’ll know that I enjoy a bit of optical trickery.

As the first piece in what is now an ongoing collection of work called Celestial Jewel Narratives, this brooch is rather special.  I made Winter Sky Gazer’s Earrings and Sun Worshipper’s Earrings afterwards in 2021, and in 2022 I added Night Sky Gazer’s Earrings and Summer Sky Gazer’s Earrings as well as brooches and other items for Sun Worshipping and Moon Bathing, shown all together for the first time at the 40th edition of Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2022.

Golden Sun Worshipper’s Earrings and Summer Sky Gazer’s Earrings

I’m still enjoying working on these pieces and I made more ready-to-wear Celestial Jewel Narratives over last winter…

The Sky Gazer’s Brooch has taken on a life of its own as part of a fabulous private collection, destined to be worn and talked about, whilst the other ready-to-wear Celestial Jewel Narratives have prompted commissions that I’ve enjoyed working on with clients, using inherited, often unworn and perhaps mismatched or broken, but personally highly prized jewels and objects.  More on that another time…