The finished plique-a-jour smiley

[afmetalsmith]

Plique Smiley, completed Glass plique-a-jour enamel in a fine and sterling silver filigree, with sterling silver, natural yellow sapphire, and black diamond. This pendant has a lot of movement and dances when worn, in keeping with the playful nature of the smiley face. The black is opaque enamel; the yellow is translucent, so it looks nice without light behind it and glows when back-lit. This is the other of the two pieces I created for a 2006 show featuring the smiley at the Worcester Historical Society. Worcester, MA is the original source for this icon of the 1970s. (Seen in person, the sapphire is more yellow and not as orange as it looks here.)

Comments

[gandryyne.livejournal.com]

All of these are awesome, A!!! I really hope you market them. Tho I don't envy the amount of work they take.

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I put scary prices on them for the show ($450 for the plique, $500 for the cloisonne, because the latter has more silver and and a lot more $$$ in stones- that 5mm sapphire wasn't cheap...) because I'd really rather not sell them, AND the show takes 40% if they do sell, so to get anything reasonable for my time etc. they had to go high. Sigh.

That's really an issue for me in general; I OUGHT to start pricing stuff double what I'd need to do OK in selling it, but that seems really high to me- and for a lot of things I'd rather have them in good homes than charge an arm and a leg because at some point I want/need to put stuff in galleries. I am still trying to figure out how to handle that.