I’m excited to announce I won the MAGVI FIRST NATIONS Design Challenge for the month of April and am now able to share my design with you. I have to tell you that there was some pretty stiff competition (which makes it all the more exciting).
ARTISTS NOTE
First Nations and Navajo cultures (just to name a few), celebrate the eagle in their spiritually-based ceremonies as it is believed the eagle could soar between heaven and earth because of how high it can fly.
My design pays tribute to the “Eagle Dancer” and can be worn as a pendant, scarf pin or brooch.
The fabrication of this piece incorporates hand sawing, riveting, hammer & rolling mill textures and soldering to name a few. This was my first prong setting for the top bead/stone and fabricating a pin clasp. It is worth mentioning that hand sawing is not something I embrace, but felt the design needed a free form design for the back plate to frame the top piece (and I only broke 3 blades so that is an improvement for me). The bail wasn’t in the original design, but was born out of having to trouble shoot a failed frame for the pin. I’m happy with how it turned out and how I was able to problem solve along the way.
There are things I would alter next time but I so enjoyed the journey of this challenge.
