CHARON KRANSEN ARTS 8
INTRODUCTION 10
CHARON KRANSEN 12
INDIRA & ISIDRO
JEWELRY DESIGNERS 12
KARIN WAGNER 13
Yak Teeth 14
Mouth-Blown Glass 20
Mexican Seed 26
Shell 32
Yellow Rice Paper 38
Black & White Headband 44
Floral Headband 50
Jane’s Gift 56
Rubber 62
Fishing Lure 68
Cowbell 74
Flip-Flop 80
Two-Tone Lucite 86
Wood 92
Ten Giraffes 98
Deli Wrap 104
African Blue Beaded 110
Felt Flower 116
Crocheted Map 122
Elizabethan Rubber 128
Woven Fabric 134
Starry Fabric 140
Large Felt Orb 146
Liv’s Suction Cup 152
Tin Tube 158
Red Rubber Gloves 164
Pink Pleated Fabric 170
Liv’s Fish 176
Licorice Allsorts 182
Black & White Shell 188
Carol’s Gift 194
Vinyl 45s 200
Ostrich Egg 206
Barbie Doll 212
Fabric Duck Feet 218
Fireworks 224
Fake Grass 230
Rubber Strip 236
Crocheted Lanyard & Metal 242
Optical Illusion 248
Iridescent Leather 254
Orange Rope 260
Nagaland Beaded 266
Graduated White Fabric 272
Yellow & Blue Glass Beaded 278
Red & Black Trumpet 284
Child’s Metal Loincloth 290
African Trade Bead 296
Indian Glass Bead 302
Mexican Rosary 308
Glow in the Dark 314
Red Felt & Cactus Flower 320
Enameled Metal 326
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 332
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR JEWELERS WHOSE WORK IS SHOWN IN THE BOOK 333
I’m delighted you’ve chosen to read Jewelry on the Wild Side. This second Wild Side book continues to explore my fascination with artists using the ordinary in extraordinary ways. In this book, the focus is on artists who make jewelry using materials not commonly associated with traditional jewelry making.
Changing the accepted use of available, everyday items has been a lifelong passion of mine, although subtle in the beginning. I remember entertaining myself as a very small child—maybe just five years old—by gluing sticks and containers together to make a tiny doghouse. A few years later, I remember using a box of beautiful wine labels my dad had brought home from a trip to his Italian homeland. I loved those labels and cooked up a plan for their use. A young neighbor helped me drag a rather tall stepladder from the garage, and the project was underway. After several hours, a frieze of decorative labels adorned the top section of our playroom’s walls. The problem was that I had not asked for permission. To my astonishment, however, my dad loved what I’d done and never once reprimanded me. It was only much later that I saw, to my delight, the stunning interior of an African hut with canned food labels plastered across its walls.
I learned early on that African ladies in South Africa made their own earrings and bracelets from beads, copper, wire, or bone for self-adornment, while Malay and Indian ladies added kohl to their eyes and dressed the fringe on their shawls with little mirrors and tiny bells. In my young mind, jewelry never really meant gold or gems; it was mainly sourced from what was at hand, as a form of creative expression.
While traveling, my profound realization was that people in the most far-flung places across the world all have this powerful urge to self-adorn. Despite never having been a jeweler, what I found fascinating was that the materials chosen by these artists and artisans are often simply what the earth yields. I’ve tried to include works that illustrate these remarkable innovations and the materials used.
One of the artists mentioned briefly, Italian jeweler Annamaria Zanella (1966–2022), described her own work as jewelry “made with the consistency of a poem. The substance remains, removing the superfluous” (from “In Conversation with Annamaria Zanella” by Roberta Bernabei, 2017). She was influenced by the Italian author Italo Calvino and his “Lightness” lecture, which he wrote at Harvard University in 1985 but died before he could present it. He wrote, “literature has an existential function, the search for lightness as a reaction to the weight of living.” The wearable artworks I’ve chosen for this book all appear to comply with this extraordinary principle. Ms. Zanella’s work and the unique creations of so many other artists included here all reflect this approach. I have tried to carry this “lightness” through in my presentation of the artists’ creations as well.
My hope is that readers, conformists and nonconformists alike, will marvel at concepts that can open all our minds and hearts to a world of colorful, wearable art, enabling us to seek out, try on, feel the “fit,” and understand its formidable existential effect.
The ring is a heavy circular-drilled stone, set with a glass bead. It was made by an unknown American artisan.
The elegantly-designed wood-beaded bracelet is luxuriously proportioned by an unknown African artist.
Earrings are by a South African artisan and are apparently made from porcupine quill beads.
The model’s hair is made from cedar chips, while wood curtain rings and striped sponges make up her eyes.
The light-as-air choker is offset in this photograph by a large, tropical leaf.
Layers of black, textured leather rectangles are arranged from large to small, sewn together in the center. The stack is then glued to an adjustable sizing ring form. It was created by an unknown American artisan.
The bracelet is a magnificent black geode, ringed in white, created by an unknown South African artisan.
The black-and-white earring forms are commercial jewelrymaking stock. I attached an artisan-made flower button to each, and epoxied ear clips to the backs.
The brooch is by the now-familiar Betty Stoukides.
The gem-like, green faceted ring was designed by a trader in India who sold his wares from his canoe. He paddled up to my sister Nanette and I while we were on our rented houseboat on the Srinagar Lake in Indian-administered Kashmir. Need a different size? No problem—back in an hour with the perfect fit.
For several years, my business partner and I owned a Ladies’ boutique in Bronxville, New York, called Chaos NY. We bought two versions of these bracelets, made by French artists, for our inventory. When we closed up shop, I got to keep one of each.
Earrings are by Alexis Bittar, whose brand of earrings I collected. The color ranges are varied, as are the large range of striking shapes.
The brooch is by an unknown artisan and reminds me of a beautiful item dredged up from the ocean depths—appropriate, therefore, for this fishing lure section of the book.
This blue and silver enameled ring is a fun and fabulous bauble for Barbie.
Also by Ms. Gallo, the bracelet is another winner, showing off the various styles and colors of Barbie’s party shoes.
Created by an unknown artisan, these beautiful ceramic earrings were a gift from Mary, a friend and fellow Charon
The beautiful, softly petalled felt brooch is by Karin Wagner.
The ring is by Texas artist Rebecca Collins, who used half a red ceramic bead, set in sterling silver, to create it.
The bracelet is by the Italian jeweler Annamaria Zanella (1966–2022). Her focus has been described as research into materials and “the subversion of commonly held assumptions about beauty and value” (From “In Conversation with Annamaria Zanella” by Roberta Bernabei, 2017).
To Ms. Zanella that finding was “a welcome distinction in terms,” as her creations were often crafted from basic, everyday substances, as the bracelet on this spread was, too. For it, she used silver, enamel, and plastic. Her work joins many artists in this book who follow the same philosophy. Ms. Zanella’s jewelry has been included in many permanent collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Earrings are from the Cultural Heritage Center in Arusha, Tanzania, while the brooch was by an unknown artisan in Mexico.
The lime-green felt flower ring is one of the legendary Karin Wagner’s masterpieces.
The bracelet is a beaded one, made by an unknown US artist.
The Bakelite earrings are by an unknown Mexican artisan, while the brooch is one I made from a metal leaf, like those worn as hair by the model in this segment.
The red felted star-shaped ring seemed made to be worn with this necklace, even though it wasn’t created by the same artist. The ring is by German felt artist Karin Wagner, whose jewelry has appeared on so many pages of this book.
The bracelet is another finely carved, extremely comfortable flip-flop bracelet made by an unknown, super-creative artisan in Cape Town, South Africa. Earrings are also felted, this time by an unknown sixteen-year-old student in San José del Cabo, Mexico. I loved her closet-sized shop and bought two pairs of her earrings, both outlined with seed beads. When I went back a week or two later, her shop had closed, and she was gone.
The delicious, juicy red watermelon brooch was made by a women’s cooperative in Mexico.
