“Urban Jabber”
My Chinese Apothecary Chest: in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during my husband’s ex-pat assignment. Serves as the repository for my beads. Handcrafted. It has 52 Drawers, mostly sorted by color.
2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila! 52 Necklaces!
‘Week 52/Drawer 52: December 28, 2017: “Urban Jabber”
We have arrived at the last Wednesday of 2017 and at the bottom right last drawer. Drawer 52 actually contains faux amber, but the necklace would look a lot like Drawer 34 (August 23), so I have chosen to conclude my year’s work with panache. I will tie together an amazing centerpiece with a quote from the artist which will, in turn, tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work in my 75th year.
Rochelle Ford, Palo Alto, CA, is the artisan who made the centerpiece. At age 58, she taught herself to weld, got a permit to salvage metal at the town dump, and turned her home into a gallery of her work. I took some classes from her in the late 90’s to learn how to solder (I flunked, just like those drawing classes I took. So if you can’t do it, buy it from one who can!)
I commissioned some recycled metal centerpieces from Rochelle and this is the last one in my inventory.
Life marched on. I’m in Boston; Rochelle has turned 81 and is still welding. Imagine my surprise three years ago when some ageing quotes popped up in my email, just like the cute dog and cat emails, and my friend Rochelle had a fabulous quote! I copied it and put it on my studio bulletin board. Here it is:
“ Every morning when I wake up, I say, ‘I’ll never be as young as I am today. Today is the youngest day of the rest of my life. Get up and do something fun!’”
Her piece is 5.75” by 4.75”. There are many crazy bits of metal welded together and painted. Like all my centerpieces, they dictate the colors of the beads: here olive and copper were the obvious choices. They had to be chunky, so there is lampwork glass, Indian glass, filigreed copper, a strand of small round flat vintage Czech glass, and it really demanded some hefty copper chain. It weighs just 10 oz, not a heavy necklace.
The beaded section is 9.5” long on each side and features a large copper clasp. Matching olive earrings don’t match with each other: one is round and the other an organic pear shape. As Rochelle recommends, have fun! $139.
Rochelle’s story is too good not to tell, so I will do a week 53 wrap-up to tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work and what I learned over the past 52 weeks. We’ll pretend there are 53 weeks in 2017.
You will love her website www.metalsculptor.com, or google her name Rochelle Ford.
Priscilla Beadle 