STEPH LOPEZ ART

Originally posted on Feb. 18, 2014 at flowjewelryandcrafts.wordpress.com.

I love the beach, and try to keep mementos from every trip : a shell, a pebble, broken coral. Whenever I’m stressed or long to be near the sea but can’t, I take these mementos in my hand and the textures of shell and sand soothe me somehow. At home, I have a shelf where I keep beach mementos and beach-themed objects that were given to me as gifts.

I made this piece a few years back to replicate that comforting, relaxing feeling of being at the beach and having sand in your toes. For this piece, I used Boracay sand. A friend, upon finding out that I’ve never been to Boracay, gave me some Boracay sand from his own stash.

For summer 2014, I made these pieces of jewelry, mostly pendants, from some shells and broken coral from my stash of mementos. The pendants are made of aluminum wire, shell or coral, and various stones including agate, turquoise-like stones, and moonstone.

Originally posted on May 29, 2014

In a different post, I wrote about how fond I am of collecting shells at the beach and posted pictures of pendants I made from shell and broken coral.

I came from Ilocos earlier this month and was able to gather more “beach debris” which I used (along with some given by a client) to make more pendants and necklaces.

Each piece of shell or coral never looks exactly the same, plus, I don’t use the same types or number  of embellishments per pendant, so you have a truly one-of-kind piece.

I love working with bits of shell and coral. I like working with their form – their contours and holes -rather than against it; I don’t drill into or chip off anything.

The pendants below are attached to ribbon, though I recently replaced these ribbons with chain. (It seems there are very few of us who prefer ribbon or string to chain 🙂 )

 

Originally posted on October 18, 2015.

Gathered, washed, and bleached these shells/ broken coral. No shells were cut or drilled here; much of the enjoyment (and challenge) comes from having to work with an existing form, its details, cracks and crannies.