Gifties continued...

Brooch by Bettina Speckner 2001
Photo Etching on Zinc, Set in Fine Gold
with black diamonds

Bettina Speckner's jewelry is the best argument I know for making a ton of money. She's my favorite jeweler for an assortment of reasons, most of them arty, so bear with me here. First, she's an odd kind of deconstructivist, and I love me some ironic deconstructivists wherever I find them. Her pieces show you how they're made, while at the same time, they're a narrative on jewelry in general, explaining how jewelry functions as a keepsake, a reminder, and a collection of precious materials. Here, let me show you another couple of pieces.

Brooch by Bettina Speckner 2005
Photo Etching on Zinc, Set in Fine Gold


Brooch by Bettina Speckner 2003
Photo Etching on Zinc, Set in Silver
with Gray Pearls

There's also a kind of gloomy memorial nuttiness about her work. They remind me of the Victorian funereal hair jewelry I used to see at my grandfather's house. This was truly creepy stuff in the best creepy death-worshiping Victorian tradition. Head hair was collected from the dearly departed, then macramed into strange intricate knots and chains, then set into rose gold fittings with cut rubies added for contrast. The stuff made me feel crawly just looking at it. But Bettina's work takes the memorial idea and turns it on its head in a couple of ways. Sometimes she uses an "unworthy" subject; see cow above, and elevates it with precious metals and beautifully matched pearls. Sommetimes she goes for broke and takes an antique photo, one of those that's so antique you can't imagine that a human ever lived outside the image (See below), then decks it out with raw diamonds.

Brooch by Bettina Speckner 2003
Ferrotype; Silver; Split Raw Diamonds

She often tosses in some strange bit of offhandedness like the little hats floating below the subject in the brooch pictured above, or the globs of gold scattered on her 2005 brooch.

If you're cudgeling your head, trying to think up an anonymous gift for your Writer to the Stars, head on over to Bettina Speckner. Any one of her pieces would be a prize and I'd wear it every day. Otherwise, I may have to write a book and squander aaaallll the advance money.

Be worth it though.