After I graduated college, I went to New York for the summer to intern at the Museum of Modern Art (a great experience), then in the fall traveled to Venice for a three month internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (incredible experience). This was such an amazing time in my life, full of art and exploration. I kept a sketchbook while in Venice, and tended to focus on small decorative areas of larger medieval and renaissance artworks. After Venice, my friend Heather and I traveled to some other places in Italy, then on to Greece. Then she returned to Italy and I went on to Turkey, back to Italy, then Spain (by way of Nice), and finally, Switzerland. Even though I had never made a piece of jewelry at that point, it was on my mind a lot during these three months of travel. In fact, most of my souvenirs were pieces of jewelry made by local artists. I knew I wanted to make jewelry someday, so my sketchbook included interesting pieces of jewelry and other art that I saw along the way..
Recently I pulled out this sketchbook hoping for some inspiration for a new piece of jewelry. I found a drawing of a floral decoration from the Accademia Museum in Venice. I didn't note what it was, but I think it was probably a decorative element on an altarpiece frame. Here's the sketchbook page, and the flower I wanted to use is in the lower left.
And here are the resulting pieces of jewelry:
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| A 1" wide flower pendant (I also made a smaller one that is 3/4" wide.) |
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| Matching earrings with pale pink pearls |
Who knows? Maybe some other new pieces will come from old sketches. Meanwhile, just for kicks, here are some other drawings from that sketchbook.
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| Sketches from the Archeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete (Greece) |
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| These sketches are from the Byzantine Museum in Athens (Greece). I actually made a pendant many years ago, inspired by the drawing in the upper left (see below). |
Now for some non-jewelry decorative sketches...
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| From Durer's "Jesus Among the Doctors," Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid |
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| A work by Goya in the Prado Museum, Madrid |
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| Not sure what this was from, but it was a work in the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid |
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| My beautiful Venice |
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