The finished cloisonné smiley!

[afmetalsmith]

Cloisonné Smiley, in setting Glass enamel on fine silver cloisonné, set into a sterling setting. Gemstone accents are natural yellow sapphires, and black diamonds. I created this piece for a show at the Worcester Historical Society, devoted to the smiley in various media. Worcester, MA is where it was first created! I wanted to capture the light-heartedness of the design in its setting. The "ribbons" are forged silver and undulate toward and away from the viewer, as well as from side to side. The playfulness is accented by the deliberate asymmetry of the the piece as a whole. (The black background of the photo is modifying the color of the sapphires a bit; in real life, they match the color of the enamel.)

Comments

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

I'm not really a smiley fan myself, in the abstract: Wall-Mart's usage has sort of polluted them for me.

And yet- working on them for a show with NO Wal-mart connections (that I know of) was a lot of fun, and was in some ways a weird way for me to get in touch with myself as a teen.

So I'm glad I did it, and am thinking that I need to do more purpose-built stuff designed for a particular show/book/whatver.