artist's statement, etc.

I used to make rings out of colored telephone wire when I was six years old. We all did. But nobody else remembers.

Felicia Parsons ~ 60517 Feeney Road ~ Marengo, WI ~ 54855

Artist's Statement

Highest degree: Master of Fine Arts, Hamline University

Undergraduate studies: Music, literature, and horticulture

I create fabricated metal jewelry, most of it enameled. I form the metal from sheet and wire, as opposed to cast from shot or sculpted from clay. I work alone as a studio artist, producing my metal work myself from conception to final polish (if there is one). I use both dry sifted and wet packed enamel, often in conjunction with seamed hollowform and hand-hammered chasing and repoussé. I also like to melt and fuse silver scrap to create a raw, highly tactile and unprocessed quality of surface.

I want my work to celebrate both humanity and nature without compromising either, so I use recycled and reclaimed metals almost exclusively. I rarely use stones anymore, since enamel offers so much more flexibility with color, and I'm frankly tired of dumb ideas about what is and is not "precious." If strapping a carbonized chunk of dirt to your finger is really all it takes to make you feel special, then DeBeers has done their job. That would just be silly and vain if it ended there, but gemstones are far too frequently mined by children, prisoners, and slaves in countries with lax or non-existent environmental protections --- just so that other people can make obscene amounts of money. Or flaunt the fact that they make obscene amounts of money. Call me an iconoclastic crabby ass, but brutal exploitation for the sake of vanity just happens to piss me off. Jewelry is the last thing that should come with a heavy burden of other people's suffering. That's just not cool. Or beautiful.

Jewelry Care

Maintaining the antique patina of your oxidized silver ~ without losing the highlights ~ is easy: simply polish the metal parts of the piece with either a polishing cloth (for shiny highlights) or a green 3M pot scrubber (for a matte finish). Clean the stones, if necessary, with a lint-free cloth.

Water won’t hurt your jewelry, in fact you can use a soft toothbrush, warm water, and a little bit of baking soda or mild dish soap to good effect, especially in all-metal pieces. But avoid submerging the jewelry in any kind of cleaning liquid such as ultrasonic or chemical cleaners. The natural stones may be damaged and the silver patina may be removed completely.

Many of the natural stones I use ~ turquoise, chrysocolla, malachite, serpentines, pretty much anything green or blue ~ are much softer than classic transparent gems like diamonds. They will scuff up and scratch if you knock them around. Tossing them into a jumbled jewelry box is probably not the best idea. If you must punch a wall, take off your ring first.

Silver is a highly reactive metal, that's why it patinates in the first place. Keep it away from latex/rubber as well as strong chemicals, including hair spray and heavy perfume, to keep it from over-tarnishing. Plastic is fine, in fact sealing silver in a plastic bag will slow the natural oxidation process.

Enamel is glass, but I wouldn't go spraying Windex on my enamel jewelry. A soft cloth should do the trick. A warm wet toothbrush if things get desperate. (And who doesn't feel better cozying up to a warm wet toothbrush when things get desperate?)

There are a number of good resources for silver and jewelry care on the Web. Simply Google "cleaning silver jewelry" or whatever. You can read all day.

Customer Testimonials

People have been very generous with their comments. I'm honored. If you're curious what some of them have been saying, please visit the link to customer testimonials.