Bracelets
Fish have been a family favorite theme. My grandfather and father ( Frank Patania, Sr. and Jr.) both loved fishing in the Pecos river outside of Santa Fe. I have only fished once there myself and the beauty of being in that place is rejuvenating.
I got to love fish as a jewelry theme through my predecessors and Mexican jewelry I have grown up around. My dad made a wonderful fish bracelet years ago which I just love so I have made a few fish bracelets myself. I made these two earlier in 2008. I had purchased a lot of Andalusite from my friend Jeff Graham of www.faceters.com many years ago that I felt would become a fish someday. I also had purchased a lot of unheated Sapphire and Mali Garnet from Jeff about the same time and have been using them since and thought they would go well in a fish. So I made one fish with Andalusite scales on his body with a Sapphire eye and one fish with Mali garnet on his body with one Aquamarine in the center of his body and a Sapphire eye.
I made my fish out of Argentium Sterling sheet with a square wire frame. I used my Bonny Doon hydraulic press to shape the fish so they had a pleasing radius, not just flat. I gave both of them a hint of a smile. The first fish bracelet I made I set Bisbee turquoise in, it sold at Mark Bahti’s Shop here in Tucson.
These fish are available through the Arizona Inn here in Tucson at 2200 East Elm Ph# 520-325-1541. The Arizona Inn is a wonderful family owned business which has always been a place my family loved. I was attracted to having my jewelry at the Inn and with Mark Bahti ( www.bahti.com) because they are family owned generational businesses. The Inn doesn’t have a website yet but they have a showcase full of my jewelry for sale there.
Photographing bracelets is very difficult. I do most of my own photography unless it is going to be in a 4 color printed piece. Bracelets and rings are hard to have the viewer understand the scale of the piece. These fish have so much going on all over their bodies but I chose to shoot the head and the tail is visible in the background.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hanuman 10.15.08 at 10:06 pm
Absolutely fun a design! Thanks for sharing! Hanuman
Jerry Fowler 10.16.08 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for bring back the memories of the Pecos. I remember fishing there as a child and finding the dinosaur foot prints in the rocks. I find the fish very amusing.
Daniel Culver 10.22.08 at 10:11 pm
More than just fun, I think you’ve juxtaposed religion with nature in a way that is respectful to religious persons and still pleasing to the strictly nature lover. The stones I think comment on the classic bible store of plenty from one fish from Jesus’ miracle with the fish and bread, while simultaneously representing natural fish scales in a pleasing balanced way. I would love to see a women wearing a few of these up one arm.
SJB 11.08.08 at 5:40 pm
One of the wonderful things about beautiful jewelry is that it can be as much an expression of the person who wears it as of the person who dreamt it into being. When I look at these fish, they remind me of Thailand and so many of the wooden carvings, clay work and even metal work that you see in local, folk art pieces. T hais have a saying about fish in the water and rice in the fields that symbolizes abundance and self-reliance and an accord with nature. It is also a saying that is used playfully and with joy. See what your work evokes ?!? I would love to wear one of these bracelets.