Spotlight On Suzanne
Needle & Thread Techniques Transfer to Metals & Minerals
As a former award-winning master quilt maker, I incorporate time-intensive techniques that are drawn from the fiber art world when creating my distinctive line of handmade fine art jewelry. Evident in the image on the left, my popular cutwork technique is akin to reverse appliqué rendered in metal. Seen side-by-side, piecing fabrics to fabrics is a compositional skill used in constructing both cloth and metals.
As promised in my July 1 Spectacular Spotlight on Suzanne, I am excited to show you some of the finest examples of the transferrable techniques between fiber art and fine art jewelry!
The Bridges of Cowley County was an article featured in the 1999 Fall issue of KANSAS! This magazine announced the fifteen historic stone bridges – all links to Cowley County’s past – that were to be the highlight of an upcoming annual fall tour. The images were taken by photographer Roy Steinert. I found inspiration for the quilt (left) in Steinert’s photo of The Badger Creek Bridge which is located southeast of Winfield, is a favorite subject for area artists. I named my pictorial quilt It’s Just Water Under the Bridge.
The center stone of this piece is a very unusual, highly collectable turquoise from the Bisbee Mine in Arizona. This finely webbed blue stone is known for its chocolate brown matrix – here resembling a tree, thus the name, Blowing in the Wind. The cuff is of 18 gauge sterling silver with a roller printed background. Leaves have been cut from another sheet of silver and soldered to the background all together resulting in a jewelry counterpart to the quilt.
Appliqué Technique: used extensively in textile art, this is a separate pattern sewed or applied onto a larger piece of fabric common to quilt making. In jewelry making, an appliqué is considered to be a smaller design applied to another surface. The quilt and the cuff above as well as the cuff and pendant below are examples of the appliqué technique.
Copper/Silver Appliqué Cuff – SOLD
Cutwork Technique: sections of fabric are cut open and surrounded with stitching to stop the edges from fraying. In jewelry making: sections of metal are hand cut open and the edges are smoothed. The cutwork is either left open to reveal the background or attached to another metal.
Art Nouveau Cuff – SOLD
One of my newest works, this Birds & Flowers Collar combines a number of transferable techniques drawn from the skills I perfected in fiber art world. The copper design (cutwork) is fastened (piecing) to the sterling silver background (appliqué). All pieces are hand cut.
Piecing Technique: a method of assembling and affixing separate shapes. It took thousands of hours for me to piece together O’ Beautiful which won an award in The Great American Quilt Festival. It took me several days to create and piece together the Americana Buckle with a flying eagle.
O’ Beautiful
Americana Buckle – SOLD
A mixture of metals and stone below are pieced together creating several of my exclusive signature designs of one-of-a-kind pieces that are highly sought after.
Citrine Druzy with Chrysocolla – SOLD
Ruby in Gold Ring – SOLD
I am currently in my studio in Scottsdale creating finely handcrafted wearable art that balances and shows off the impressive organic shapes of natural stones set in clean designs. I will be posting images and descriptions of new work on my website and right now I have nearly 40 AVAILABLE WORKS which can now be ordered online through PayPal. Please note that you may place your order even if you do not have your own PayPal account. Orders are shipped by USPS Express Mail Insured. Shipping within the USA is free; please contact me if you want an item shipped outside the USA. You can also order by phoning Suzanne Brown Jewelry at 480 225 0930.