Laurie says:
I’m back from Boston and more or less recovered. Leaving again much too soon.
In October, I saw a Luo Ping exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. I was very struck by his abstract cherry blossom ink drawings. Trunks almost abstract with sometimes precise but very stylized blossoms. This image of his work is close in feeling to what I saw. (Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find something more precisely like what I saw.)
This is a photo of a jewelry commission that I made, which his images inspired. I started working with these watch parts in small ways about 6 months ago. Working with antique beads in steampunk designs. There was something about their precise symmetry that was very inspiring, probably because I usually work with far more organic shapes. Then I started slowly using them in my lost-wax sculpted work.
This sculpted cherry tree pendant was clear in my head almost as soon as I saw his drawings. Then making it took a very long time. It required a lot of very precise carving. I was fortunate that it was commissioned within a week of my conceiving it.
The piece is silver, bronze, marcasite, and rubies. Image is about twice actual size