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Earrings
Jewelry by Morganne Wagner
2010 D. Bradley Smith Art Purchase Award Winner

Photo of the Artwork

Photo of the Artist Morganne Wagner first took art classes early in her career at Brighton High School, beginning with Mr. Kunz's Studio Art 1 course. There she learned the foundation of the elements and principles of design, and more specifically, what goes into an aesthetically pleasing piece of art. It was in Studio Art 1 that she found how much time and dedication it takes to develop a highly-crafted piece of art, but also how to show the meaning and purpose in her artistic vision. It was also in this class that she demonstrated not only a dedication to the arts, but a great sense of design for a young artist.

Mr. Kunz was thrilled when Morganne decided to take Jewelry Making her senior year because she could apply all her knowledge gained from Studio Art 1 to this course. "It's just great to work with highly-motivated students that really go above and beyond the course guidelines," he said. Her teachers found it very difficult to pick one of her pieces for this award, because every piece she made was crafted with perfect precision, elegance, and with a great sense of balance.

Shown here is a very unique pair of earrings that Morganne crafted in her Jewelry Making course. She used copper tubing and painstakingly cut, filed, and finished the double rings all by hand. This took her several weeks because of the amount of filing that was involved to get the rings perfectly level after the first cuts with a jeweler's saw. She then used a ring mandrel and jeweler's hammer to texture the copper to give it more of an organic and natural appearance, versus a highly polished look. Tiny copper tubes were used to space the rings, and her choice of a silver French Earring hook connects visually with the purple pearl in the middle to fully balance the work visually from top to bottom.

Next year Morganne will attend Binghamton University, and we are sure that she will continue her tradition of excellence as she embarks on a new journey in college.

photo of the artwork and story provided by Jed Kunz

June 24, 2010


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