Studio Process: The Nesting Doll Collection
My Nesting Doll Collection came about from one prompt: challenge myself to make a figurative cobblestone inlay with under 8 pieces of stone. I liked the idea of trying to make a simpler piece that was still dynamic with color and emotion.
When I was first sketching out some ideas, I was at the end of my pregnancy with my second son Clayton so I was often snuggled up on the couch with a quilted blanket. Initial designs just had a figure with a blanket on lap, but eventually got even cozier with the blanket fully wrapped around her head and body.
The shape of the figures from my drawings immediately reminded me of the nesting dolls I was enamored by as a kid—where a wooden doll “hides” progressively smaller wooden dolls inside its shell.
I loved the idea that these Nesting Dolls, with their intricately nested layers, are symbolic of the different facets of our personalities—many parts that are hidden and waiting to be discovered. Just as one doll contains another in a motherly way, we should embrace and nurture all of these sometimes incongruent parts of ourselves.
All of my cobblestone inlays start as a channel inlay, where I bend silver wire to create the “outlines” between each stone. This is then soldered to a backplate (as seen in the image here) and then the pendant bails can be attached.
Once the sterling silver pendant is fully complete, that’s when I can start on the stone cutting.
Since this figurative inlay doesn’t have the visual movement of limbs, I needed to add some kind of excitement in the quilt blanket that surrounds the figure. I decided to make an intarsia—which is a design made out of multiple stones much like a mosaic—in a checkerboard pattern that’s reminiscent of Granny squares!
This stone intarsia is made with howlite (the white stone), lapis lazuli (one of the blue stones), sodalite (the other blue), amazonite (green), fluorite (purple), and opalized wood (peach).
Once the checkerboard intarsia is finished, I can roughly trim out the shapes of the stones needed for the inlay before refining them to their final shape.
Each of the 7 stones goes through 8 stages of careful cutting and polishing before they are ready to be permanently epoxied in place. Before I do this, I do a final test fitting (as you can see in the video clip below).
As a bonus challenge, the larger of the two nesting doll pendants also doubles as a brooch—which is the first time I’ve made a piece like that.
With the rest of the intarsia, I was able to make a pair of checkerboard drop earrings to go with the pendant/brooch for a matching set.
And I couldn’t help but make a few more checkerboard/striped earrings while I was at it…
