jewelry – Tales of Creative Compassion

For Happiness

So I haven’t been around much lately. I’ve become a tad bit obsessed with making polymer clay jewelry. It started out as a little endeavor to add a summer-friendly product to my etsy store, but now it’s probably what I think about the most after the cute husband and my lovely daughter. I am having so much fun with it, and there are so many things I can still try. Here’s just a few of the things I’ve been working on.

I have to say that I’ve been pretty inspired by the artist profiles I’ve been doing. I expected that the last question, what is your unique purpose for creating work, would lead to all manner of profound and earth-shaking answers. I was surprised to find that several artists make art because they like to make art, or because they think it makes people happy, or just because that’s what they do. Hearing that from artists that I really respect and admire has set me free to make these pieces just because I love making them, without having to worry about what kind of impact it’s having on the world or whether this will fulfill the thirst of my soul for significance.

Nihal Erpeden

I’ve started a new little endeavor recently, making jewelry from polymer clay. I’ve successfully created one respectable piece with a minimal amount of cursing. I love the range of polymer clay, how it can look like leather, glass, stone, wood, ceramic, whatever you can imagine. It’s a joy to work with a medium like that.

Which brings me to today’s artist, Nihal Erpeden, whom I came across while I was looking for a little inspiration (hubris, really. There’s nothing I saw that I can even close to approximate), and I found this amazing jewelry artist.

I love how she combines the free-form, organic detail on a surface so precise and geometric. It really is lovely, and anyone would be lucky to own such a piece.

Rebeca Mojica

There is a special respect you have to have for artists who take one medium and stretch it out of its nature. There are many pieces of artwork that I might not enjoy, but must respect just because what the artist has done with the medium is amazing. I prefer, however, to fall in love with a piece of artwork and then find out it’s made from a shocking medium. So I give you, Rebeca Mojica and her phenomenal work with chainmaille

This amazing piece is titled “Poseiden’s Embrace” and is entirely composed of tiny, interlocked metal loops. The exacting, mathematical nature of the medium makes the soft, organic folds of this piece just that much more beautiful and impressive.

Frank Tjepkema (Tjep)

These mechanical heart pendants by Frank Tjepkema are one of the more intricate pieces of art I’ve ever seen. I caught this gorgeous picture on Pinterest, and assumed this was a large (and very impressive) sculpture.

It wasn’t until I visited Tjepkema’s actual website that I realized this entire piece could nestle perfectly between my collar bones.

There is a whole series of these mechanical hearts, here is another one of my favorites.

Although I said that these pieces are by Frank Tjepkema, this is one of those annoying (to me) incidents when a successful artist has founded a company under their name (Tjep) and so it is impossible to tell if the pieces were created by the original artist or by a brilliant but invisible employee. If these pieces were made by someone other than Frank Tjepkema, I sincerely apologize for incorrectly crediting the work.

Sebahat Cetinkaya

I’m always looking for new ideas for my crochet hats, and I stumbled into some of Sebahat Cetinkaya’s work and could not stop looking at it. Here is the image that first caught my eye.

Although this is nothing like what I do with crochet, I was struck with this overwhelming feeling that I want to do that. I do not usually feel that way about art, usually I’m so stunned that anyone can do that. This piece is no less stunning than the other things I’ve seen, rather it is so beautiful in a way that feels native to me. I want to learn to do that.

Sebahat Cetinkaya doesn’t have her own website, but she and her children have an amazing etsy store that you could check out here.

This is a great article on Cetinkaya’s creative process and history (super interesting stuff)

Finally, this is a short video of her and her daughter which makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. Pretty sure that’s what it’s trying to do, but I like it anyway.