About 25 years ago, I was mainly a jeweler, doing all the typical jewelry for a retail store. But on the side, I was carving stone in my brother’s studio, doing smooth animal forms with facet lines for muscle definition. Eventually, I started doing them in bronze, and many years later, at the urging of my wife, I applied that style to a jewelry line and launched the “Of beasts and beauty” store.
Now I barely have time for anything else! With each piece, I try to create something beautiful from every angle and have movement, every arc leading into another. Most of my jewelry and small sculptures are carved from this hard wax. Larger sculptures are made with hard oil clay. I have included a few photos of wax carvings and a partially engraved bracelet before they are cast.
My ideas mainly go by feel (which drives my realist artist friends crazy). I start a project by looking at photos, then I do a profile drawing, apply the picture to the wax and transfer a primary line drawing to it, then I start carving, occasionally looking at photos for details. At some point, I realize I have managed to make something with unique movement or expression, and I know I’m almost done. I still do a lot of contemporary gold, diamond, and colored stone jewelry, but the animal jewelry/sculpture is where my heart is.
Timber wolf with diamond eyes
Forest cat ring – Animal Jewelry
Hedgehog ring
Baby fox ring
Sterling leaping puma ring
Fox bracelet
Curious hedgehog/fox
Pangolin
Silver magpie ring
Fox ring
Elephant Pendant
Dragonfly
Lion ring
Magpie pin/pendant
Fox head pendant (rose gold)
Dragon band
Wolf wax carving
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