Mixed Metal Mandalas

I've been making mandala forms in jewelry for a long time, probably over 45 years. And before that I drew and painted them starting in high school on the edge of notebook paper in classes I found boring. That was in the late 1950's. At one point I got into creating bigger ones, the biggest being on the side of a building in which I had some of my jewelry for sale in Ventura, California in 1970. It was about 8 feet in diameter and painted with house paint. I wish I had taken a picture of it but I wasn't into photography at that time and I don't think I even had a camera. I still make metal ones now and draw one occasionally. Recently I've been playing with doing collage work in mandala form with images harvested from books and magazines and sometimes with drawn elements.


Much of the jewelry I make is part of a series that develops and changes as the series progresses. Sometimes there are dozens of pieces in a series and in a few instances hundreds. Each series is like a group of cousins, each a little different. The timeline for a series can stretch into many years, I normally only make one at a time and when that one finds a home make the next. The game being that the new one has to be different but related. Different size, different combinations of metals and stones, different textures and so forth.

The first and third pictures to the left are of a flower mandala series that I started about 3 years ago and have made 6 of I think. They start with the top smooth and polished silver piece, then a different silver underlay that is either oxidized black or etched or textured. The copper dots around the edge are the rivets that hold the two silver pieces together. the flower shape is copper and the disc in the center is 14k gold. The bail at the top swivels and has a gold disc on the front.

The other two pieces pictured are mixed metal mandalas but distant cousins. The top is brass over copper that has been roller printed then heat colored in some areas and mechanically etched in others. The copper domes are the tops of rivets. It's set with a piece of paua shell, a specie of abalone that live in New Zealand. The bottom one is silver over heat colored and etched copper set with a peach colored moonstone.