Downtown Skyscrapers Collar
I’m delighted that this unique neckpiece is being offered for sale at auction by Bonhams, Knightsbridge in ‘The Art of Craft’ on 15 May, 2023.
Over the years I’ve visited many Art Deco buildings in Los Angeles such as Union Station, the Griffith Observatory, the CalEdison building. A key feature of Downtown is the monumental simplicity of the Los Angeles Central Public Library which has a quietly commanding presence in amongst the more recent taller and flashier skyscrapers.
This opulent, articulated Downtown Skyscrapers at Sunset Collar was inspired by the sight of the distinctive cluster of skyscrapers in Downtown LA, seen in the distance at sunset.
This one of a kind piece took me about a month to make early in 2017. I later made a diffusion collection of pendants and earrings in various configurations depicting Skyscrapers at Sunrise, making this collar the only piece of jewellery depicting Skyscrapers at Sunset.
Background: The towers of this collar are the development of a previous collection of ‘Sketch Box’ pieces in which I used silver, fused gold and black oxide to play with the illusion of an implied third dimension, volume and space, predominantly in pendants, earrings and brooches.
Design Process: At the end of December 2016, I made a pair of long, tower shaped earrings that were hinged on the back. Whilst the hinge was invisible, it meant that they had movement in only one direction and I realised that this flat, hinge-linked mechanism would be more appropriate if used to make a large scale architectural piece that could sit close to the body and drape smoothly and comfortably over the shoulders.
Sketches became pattern pieces; pattern pieces were laid out like a puzzle. I played with the proportions, each time referencing the body. Sections were arranged and rearranged, taped together, pulled apart, cut up, re-taped and then tested in heavy card. Once I was happy with the model, I drew the shapes onto precious metal.
Making Process: Each pattern piece was hand-pierced out of fine silver sheet metal using a fine-bladed piercing saw; edges were filed smooth, and angles finessed. The silver was heated to anneal or soften it, and then hammered with my signature technique, using stones or ‘wild tools’ as my hammer and anvil, to build up a granite like texture on the surfaces of the metal. This percussive technique ‘blurs’ the edges of the fine silver, leaving subtle undulations that I later work on to achieve a smooth, high shine. To achieve a high polish on the fine surface of all the edges in anything I make, I first scrape away any rough or sharp areas using a scorper, then I work them a little smoother using needle files, carefully preserving the undulating edges which I then push smooth by hand, using an agate burnisher. These brightly burnished edges catch the light, glinting in contrast to the stone-hammered surface textures of the pure silver.
On the back of the collar, each tube was hand cut, filed and smoothed to enable an amount of flexion within the entire assemblage of sections so that the collar is comfortable to wear. The tubes were lined up appropriately, then soldered in place, ready to take square-section links at a later stage.
After all the soldering had taken place, it was time to apply the gold. Each piece of the 23½ carat gold foil was individually drawn and cut out before being fused to the surface of the fine silver using heat to make a permanent molecular bond. An ancient Korean technique, Keum Bo means ‘gold applied.’ The gold was burnished onto the fine silver and. If the silver is over-heated, the gold will disappear under the surface and another layer must be applied.
Once the gold was fused in place, the surface was scrubbed to check that the gold had fused over the entire area. After that, I hand painted the ‘shadow’ areas with a solution that oxidised on the surface of the silver, so it’s important not to wobble or to splash other areas of the silver.
A gentle heat was applied to darken the layer of oxide, and this process was repeated until I achieved the desired shade of black. I burnished the edges for perhaps the fourth or fifth time at this stage, after which all the pieces were turned over, laid out upside down, lined up and the square section hinge links were individually hand-made, no two being the same, to ensure that the finished collar sits smoothly over the décolleté, and flows over the shoulders to rest, balanced comfortably at all points on the body.
If you look carefully: you’ll see that there is a small section on each side towards the top of the collar where there is no silver top to the towers. The direction of the ‘shadows’ changes at this point so that when worn on the body, all the towers appear vertical whether the collar is viewed from the front, or from the back.
Downtown Skyscrapers at Sunset Collar, 2017. Photograph: Alexander Brattell
