Materials: Sterling Silver, Cloisonné Enamel, 14 and 18 Karat Gold, Green Sapphire
Dimensions: 2 1/4 x 2 1/16 x 7/16".
Sterling silver pendant with an enameled centerpiece showing northern lights in the sky behind spruce trees against a backdrop of tall spruce trees and a full moon.
Photo credit: Doug Yaple
Joan M Tenenbaum
Joan Tenenbaum: Goldsmith, Anthropological Jeweler, Jewelry Teacher
Gig Harbor, WA. USA
As a young Anthropologist I traveled to the far North to document an endangered language in a small rural Alaskan village. Little did I know then that my life course would be changed forever from that experience. Being welcomed and loved by an Alaskan village community altered my perception of myself and our world. What resulted is a synthesis of an Anthropologist's perspective with a lifelong dedication to the art of jewelry making. Over the course of four decades as my understanding of these cultures and the landscape they inhabit deepened and my technical goldsmithing vocabulary expanded, my jewelry work has become more complex, more subtle and the bearer of increasingly deeper meaning regarding our connection to the Earth.
My work is entirely hand fabricated using precious metals, gemstones, cloisonn? enameling, and a wide range of metalsmithing and goldsmithing techniques. My pieces tell stories and paint pictures of the peoples with whom I lived, of how we interact with our environment, and of places of transcendent beauty. These pieces are wearable miniature landscapes having both cultural themes and ecological messages.
Materials: Sterling Silver, Cloisonné Enamel, 14 and 18 Karat Gold, Green Sapphire
Dimensions: 2 1/4 x 2 1/16 x 7/16".
Sterling silver pendant with an enameled centerpiece showing northern lights in the sky behind spruce trees against a backdrop of tall spruce trees and a full moon.
Photo credit: Doug Yaple
Joan M Tenenbaum
Joan Tenenbaum: Goldsmith, Anthropological Jeweler, Jewelry Teacher
Gig Harbor, WA. USA
As a young Anthropologist I traveled to the far North to document an endangered language in a small rural Alaskan village. Little did I know then that my life course would be changed forever from that experience. Being welcomed and loved by an Alaskan village community altered my perception of myself and our world. What resulted is a synthesis of an Anthropologist's perspective with a lifelong dedication to the art of jewelry making. Over the course of four decades as my understanding of these cultures and the landscape they inhabit deepened and my technical goldsmithing vocabulary expanded, my jewelry work has become more complex, more subtle and the bearer of increasingly deeper meaning regarding our connection to the Earth.
My work is entirely hand fabricated using precious metals, gemstones, cloisonn? enameling, and a wide range of metalsmithing and goldsmithing techniques. My pieces tell stories and paint pictures of the peoples with whom I lived, of how we interact with our environment, and of places of transcendent beauty. These pieces are wearable miniature landscapes having both cultural themes and ecological messages.