Summer work ‘09

I have not been posting much this summer, I have been working though and will attempt to catch up with this post. I have been mostly working in silver and just a little in gold. I have been looking at Marbeth Schon’s books ,”Modernist Jewelry” and “Form and Function” for inspiration. I have also been looking at Spratling’s work, which along with my family’s work are my main influences over the years.

I recently was getting jealous of Spratling’s use of Mexican motifs, I as a middle age white man , don’t feel any cultural attachment to any design motifs. I figure after a couple generations of a family in the US culture is washed away. My culture is McDonald’s and Circle K. I never felt that I could use Native American or Mexican designs in my work and feel like it was original. Both of these influences were and are ever present in my life, being located in Tucson. I love both of those influences but never could bring myself to call them my own. I have done lots of work which could easily be mistaken for Native American and maybe even Mexican but, in my art work, my one of pieces,  I shy away from doing that. I would never make a Man in the Maze, it just isn’t my culture and I am hung up on that.

Spratling, was of course, an Anglo who moved to and worked in Mexico so he couldn’t claim a cultural kinship with many of his designs either, in my mind, but employed Mexican workers and lived down there. Those reasons and the fact that he was a pioneer in the Mexican jewelry industry give him a credibility that I lack for the use of those design motifs. But I Love his work and want to use the distillation of design that I see in Aztec work. So in the pictures that follow and in the near future I think these influences will creep into my work. The upside of having no culture is that I am free to let what ever I want influence me and don’t have any cultural restrictions. As you may be able to tell, I grew up with out the internet and the instant availability of information, things in my mind move a bit slower than all that.

One wonderful thing that has happened to me this summer is that Marbeth Schon has decided to represent me in her gallery. Her location address is available on my About Patania page and her web link is; www.mschon.com. I am very proud to be included in Marbeth’s gallery and thank her very much.

Sam Patania

Some of the bracelets shown in this photo are very much influenced by Thunderbird design, from my grandfather’s and dad’s workshops, and some has the aforementioned Mexican influence.

Rio Plata bracelet by Sam Patania

This is a close up of one of the pieces, in sterling with 18K gold accents.

Rio Plata bracelets by Sam Patania

The one in the fore ground has amethyst cabs ( 6mm) sterling and 18K gold accents on a sterling bracelet, the background one is all sterling. These both have half spheres bezel set on them.

Tagged as: amethyst, aztec, Bracelet, Frank, Gold, Mexican, pantania, Patania, silver, Spratling