Suzanne began her jewelry making with hand-stamping: bracelets, earrings, necklaces. Many of those items were adorned with semi-precious stones and Swarovsky crystals. She has collected beads from more exotic locations: Nova Scotia and Alaska in particular. She sees hand-stamping as a way to convey a meaningful message. Her leather bracelets allow for a range of colors and a message added using copper, brass or aluminum.
Her jewelry work then moved into using a wire working technique of bending, coiling, shaping, hammering and twisting wires. Again, beads might or might be used in these styles.
She then discovered acid etching and really fell for the technique. Taking heavy gauge copper or brass bars and other shapes, shielding the metals in various ways to prepare them for an acid bath allowed her to create bas relief designs. The unprotected metal was eaten away by the acid, leaving the raised metal that had been shielded behind. Though a truly labor intensive process, the results were ones that left her breathless. Copper in particular could be finished to create shadows, light and dark areas, even rainbow effects to highlight the designs. It was "Katy bar the door".
Most recently she has begun learning a style called form folding. Using a torch to heat copper to a cherry red, folding it, hammering it, heating it again, unfolding it, hammering away ... the results are astonishing. The forms this has allowed her to experiment with and create, she's found all kinds of new and unexpected shapes and textures.
Any and all of her jewelry can use beads, hammering, stamping .. the options are endless. It is this possibility for experimentation that makes her work more like play.
