Thursday, July 15, 2010

love bites, part 3

And here's how it all came together:

After spending about a week communing with Lola's teeth and my bead boxes, I decided to make a sort of harness out of sterling wire that would cradle the teeth securely, but wouldn't change their structural integrity at all. I played around with shapes and wound up with this:

This is basically the same as the vintage lampwork glass leaves and flowers that I love so much - tooth flowers. When I had the final versions all wired up and ready to use, I put them in a tiny vase for pictures. This is my favorite photograph that I took during the entire project:

For the final earring design, I wanted to do something that definitely looked like my work. Since my work lately focuses heavily on asymmetry, I opted to make a mismatched pair of earrings but kept them a bit shorter than the crazy long asymmetrical pairs I've designed in recent months. The beads I chose are classic and elegant - some of the rarest and oldest things in my collection - but have a decidedly Gothic flavor when assembled with dark metals (and teeth).

Here is the end result, the Love Bites earrings:

And a little chart of the pieces I used to make them:


I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. It was a pleasure to make something special for someone whose joy, generous spirit and hard work (really, crazy hard work - I secretly suspect her of having bargained for extra hours in the day) I admire so much. Thanks for the teeth, Lorraine! I loved having them in my company, and they'll be on their way back to you soon. I hope you love them!

11 comments:

shana said...

they came out incredible!

Brenda said...

Amazing. Seriously, flipping, amazingly beautiful. I'm blown away!!! Beautiful work, Kateri!!!!

Dennice {Fringe} said...

dearest, these earrings are sheer genius. true art. i'm in love with them! you did indeed rock those toothies. fablor is gonna go wild over them!

i wish i had some puppy teeth...i'd commission a pair. i'm so proud of you.

xoxo

FabulousLorraine said...

They are LOVELY. And cool and creepy. Kind of strange. Weird even. Intriguing. And different.

Which is perfect as those are mostly all of my favorite things....

Clementine said...

OMFG, that is tremendous. And so are you.

Ngan {eNVe Designs} said...

way to shine despite the daunting pressure of the task!! those earrings are truly works of art!

cloudlover said...

Ah-mazing. This has got to be the coolest project EVER and I don't think anyone else could have done it the justice you did!!!

Decorate the Diva said...

You're a hoot!!! LOL
Creepy but I love them!!!
~Renee

Catherine Ivins said...

Speechless - you are AMAZING - you totally rocked this project - I wish I had some puppy teeth (or any teeth) to send you - just genius!

least_terrible said...

Gorgeous! I hope you do something with that photo of tooth-flowers in a vase, as well ... it's lovely, too!

KBARRETT said...

LOVE these. Love that you got this commission, love what you did with them and love the pictures.
They need an accompanying early 20th century style ghost story, don't you think? Something kind of British in spirit. if you can get on that in your spare time...??
xoxo