Genevieve Hunt
Woven Silver Jewelry
Jewelry Series
Dartmouth Trail
Hawthorn
Marion Pink
Newport Blue
Popham Sky
Sea Smoke
Silver Lining
Summer Storm
Inspiration & Technique
Artist Resume
Photographs by
George
Simonson
Inspiration and Technique
My custom-made jewelry is a collage representing the colors and textures all around my home on the New England seacoast. I never make the same thing twice. When I walk on the beach in early summer, I study the way the shells and pebbles at my feet form a carpet of interesting textures after a storm. In late August, the green leaves of the trees beyond the dunes deepens and highlights of orange and red appear. I watch the sun travel across the sky of Buzzard’s Bay and change the water from deep blue green velvet to a shimmering turquoise and pink at day’s end. I think of all of these images when I mix my palette of gemstones, beads and patinas. By combining traditional textile techniques with metalsmithing, I weave these images into bracelets, pins and necklaces. For me, any piece of jewelry must be beautiful as well as easy to wear. It should never distract from the beauty of the person wearing the jewelry. Jewelry should be transformational and make us feel that we can move beyond our everyday selves and reveal the light of our individuality.
In our large family we children were encouraged to take art classes and our parents marched us through museums on many Sunday afternoons. I took studio art classes in college while majoring in architecture. After working in architecture and merchandising for many years, I knew my days at a desk job were numbered. In 1997 I began taking metalsmithing courses at night. When I realized that I couldn’t work at a torch in my basement and keep my eye on a busy two-year-old, I found inspiration in Arline Fisch’s wonderful book, Textile Techniques in Metal. I was fascinated by the idea of transforming something as stiff as wire into a shimmering, colorful fabric that could hold any shape and yet be very flexible.
I always felt badly that I had wasted my architecture education by dropping out and spending my days at a basement workbench until I realized that I use every bit of it every day. All the lessons learned about the strength and nature of materials, the psychology of color, how gravity works, how things connect, how form does indeed follow function are all part of how I make my design decisions. I’ve continued to take metalsmithing and weaving classes whenever I could at places like Touchstone Center for Crafts, Haystack, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the Fuller Craft Museum. My goal is to explore more varied types of woven techniques and try new materials beyond wire.My Technique
When I am demonstrating at my booth during an art show or an opening, people find it hard to believe that I am knitting with wire on such tiny needles but people have been knitting with wire for thousands of years. It was a popular way to make armor and belts in the ancient world and in the early 20th century in Germany machines wove wire to make purses and other ladies’ accessories. In the late 1960s metal artist, Arline Fisch, researched and wrote about adapting many textile techniques to wire in her book, Textile Techniques in Metal. She is famous for her large knitted wire neckpieces and beautiful clasps. Knitting with wire is a challenging process taking on average one hour to knit an inch of wire fabric. Unlike yarn, which has loft and a good amount of stretch, wire has limited flexibility. Stitches can’t be ripped out easily and if the wire is overworked, it will become brittle and snap. It’s hard to hide the end of a new wire so it’s a challenge to knit with one continuous length of wire. Crocheting with wire is faster but doesn’t give the same density of fabric, unless one uses an extremely small crochet hook or crochets in a flat strip. After I make the beaded wire fabric, I have to devise a way to make the piece hold its shape and function well. This is where metalsmithing skills and knowledge of cold connections comes in handy. Working with textile techniques requires a lot of patience but the results are worth the effort.