Lunacy

Here's the new toggle ring to go along with my keyhole pendant. After some thought, I decided that a little moon madness (or lunacy, which originates from the Latin "luna" for the "moon") would be appropriate for the clasp. So here's an abbreviated version of the phases of the moon, in a fine silver donut.

I decided to make the ring reversible, and after some thought, came up with a simple 16 point compass rose design:



This isn't a great photo, but you get the picture. I love early modern maps and the elaborate compass roses you can often find in a corner of the document. I couldn't fit a full 32 point "rose" here, but, for a simple design, I think it turned out tolerably well. This side represents the wind's four quarters.

I've actually had the compass rose bead idea in my sketch book since late 2007. My ideas to cut out or illustrate the rose never seemed quite right, so it had just been sitting around for the past two years. I had a brain-wave last week to try turning the rose into negative space, and I think that turned out to be pretty workable, especially after patinating the piece, to emphasize the recessed design. Really, the whole piece was an exercise in the use of negative space, as it took me some time to decide how to illustrate the new moon phase on the flip side - I finally settled on a blank, indented circle.

I like both designs and think both could look quite nice as larger, more elaborate focal pieces - perhaps with that 32 point embellished rose and eight full lunar phases. I imagine you'll be seeing those from me fairly soon. In the meantime, I'll continue working on my new necklace.

Thanks for visiting!