This is technically a wearable piece of jewelry but I intend for it to hang on the wall for the majority of it’s time. It is a hanging garden filled with succulents and moss. The pockets that hold the plants are welded copper sheet which I then enameled white with a burnout technique. The frame is welded copper stock that has the ability to bend at the joints for when the piece is being worn.
These rings were made in the Introduction to Jewelry/Metals class in 2012 at Kent State University. The one on the left is made out of brass with a sterling silver inner band. The beads on top are dyed jasper. The outsides of it have been etched with a geometric design similar to the right ring.
The ring on the right is made out of copper with an inner band made out of sterling silver as well. It also has a geometric design etched on the outside of the ring. The top of the ring has wire connecting the two sides, it appears to be laced together.
This piece was made in Introduction to Jewelry/Metals in 2012 at Kent State University. The medallion is made from four different metals: copper, brass, nu gold and nickel. Each animal is a hand drawn representation of a real animal that lives in the deep sea. It is 8 inches wide and 6 inches tall.
I made this piece in the Advanced Studio class with Kathleen Browne at Kent State University in spring 2014. It is made out of nu gold and sterling silver. As far as I know the stones are chrysoprase, but I could be wrong.
For the assignment we picked our own projects. After a very difficult time with the first assignment, for which I chose a box, I decided that I had to conquer box making and make something fantastic. This is the result! The box is meant to be a place for the ring to be displayed when not being worn. When the owner is wearing the ring, the box is to be closed. This is why it is so embellished. When the ring is being worn, the box still looks beautiful sitting on the bedside table or dresser or what have you.
This is a group of 3 brooches that I made for an assignment in Alternative Materials in 2013. The assignment was “hard”. The project had to be hard in material or hard in concept. So I decided to represent 3 or the 5 stages of mourning. The bottom middle is sadness. I tried to make a puddle like form because when I am sad I tend to feel like a soppy puddle of sadness. The one on the right is anger, the form is sort of self explanatory. It looks like an angry shape. The top left is acceptance. I made 9 little plastic vessels and attached them to make a bundle. I thought that a vessel that is open suggested acceptance, the vessel is something that accepts other things into itself. They are white with a little bit of a purple iridescent’s. Overall I am happy with this assignment, but I don’t think they are very strong. I would at least like to re do the sadness one sometime.
This piece was done for an assignment in Kathleen Browne’s 2013 Alternative Materials class at Kent State University. It was a found object assignment. I have used quite a few found objects in this piece. It is created with the idea of charms in mind. The images of the women are from 1950’s button packages that I found in my great Aunts sewing stool. Everything that hangs from the cameo pins was also from that sewing stool. The pins attach with a pearl sewing pin, which I purchased. The chain and clasps to the girdle are made of copper jump rings that I made and black and silver bra hooks and eyes, also from the sewing stool.
Tess Bulman|Metalsmith 
