Making this present for Cristina was
something I was happy to do because Taller Tierra y Plata has played an
important role in my professional development over the last 7 years. At first I wasn't sure what I was going to
make but Cristina’s sister gave me full artistic freedom. So on my next trip to Mexico city I stopped
in to visit Cristina at her studio and drop off some of my honey.
While I was there I took a look around
because apart from making jewelry Cristina is also a designer and potter (a
good one I might add). She always has
cool contemporary designs she is working on, and one was a ceramic
"molcajete" form. Molcajetes are
traditionally made out of volcanic rock, and used for making and serving salsa
here in Mexico.
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| Molcajetes |
I liked this object a lot, and it sparked in me an idea for the
piece for her.
Here in my studio I already had a mold for the hydraulic press
to make a "metate" form, which in some ways is sort of similar to a
molcajete. But I didn't really like the mold for the metate shape for
this piece, so I made a new one that looked alot more like a molcajete.
The molcajete die form is pressed out of old
roofing copper. The brown die-pressed form above it that kind of looks
like escaping vapor was a sample I did some time back that has been floating
around my parts bucket. It doesn't represent something specific for me
but seemed to match very nicely the theme or scene. It could be vapor
perhaps or as my father said: chocolate, or even wisps of thoughts, inspiration
and ideas! I know that Cristina also
really likes to cook, so I thought the molcajete to be very fitting.
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| Bits and pieces before everything came together. |
Just recently I got back one of my pieces from a gallery which
had a round silver stamped area with a black glass button in the middle. I liked it so much that I decided to
reproduce it in this piece.
Do you see
that little black button?
It comes from
a collection that my great grandma Castle had that got passed down to me from
my maternal grandmother. The ruler was
an old ivory piece that was given to me by a friend in Mexico City, it seemed
to fit the composition nicely given that Cristina is an artist and designer.
Since it was already broken it was easy to modify it to fit the parameters of
this brooch.
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| Finished piece! |
May food or what ever source fills you, lead you to your next
great burst of creativity and inspiration!
