a heavy lightness, a light heaviness
Rebar, I-beams, the body of a 1968 Ford Mustang. It is the metal that built America. And it’s the metal that feels right, right now. In a wash of semi-preciousness, steel makes a statement. And in the hands of metalsmith Amy Tavern, it is, to quote poet Ted Berrigan, (and bestow our highest praise) “feminine, marvelous, and tough.”
Like Hazel Cox, who works with delicate steel chain in her jewelry compositions that reference deepest sea and outer space, (her work available at Denwave), Amy Tavern juxtaposes steel and tiny amounts of gold for work that embraces the patina and the rough-and-ready feel of the material. Magically, she constructs of these materials paradoxically airy pieces—with a heavy lightness, a light heaviness—like large-link necklaces and hammered bracelets that make evident the traces of the artist’s hand. And steel works best when it is allowed to be a more delicate version of its imperfect, forge-born self.
And heading toward fall, steel will perfectly embody the incoming spirit of gravitas that we will all, wittingly or no, be incorporating into our look.
WHAT TO DO NOW?