james river pottery long tassel necklace

A long necklace, with several features including the handmade tassels, and two-sided piece of river pottery found on the James River in Nelson County VA. This necklace embodies several things important to my process. The two-sided piece of pottery embodies the hidden details of a piece, and my belief that truly special and magical pieces are humble enough to keep some of their features hidden at all times. The handmade tassels are a design I came up with a long time ago, and allowed me to create something that is often purchased as parts to assemble, on my own terms using my own size and materials. Finally, the found-object nature of the piece makes it truly one-of-a-kind, a manmade piece of pottery tumbled by the river and revealed to us on nature's own terms. This small piece of pottery not only has its own story as a manmade object as well as one roughed by nature, but the non-uniform shape and size determined by these stories require a non-standard approach to figuring out how to work with it...how to set it, feature it, suspend it, and show off all its fine details.

Materials: sterling/fine silver, embroider thread, James River pottery