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brooch
The Strength Within
brooch
Gayle Saunders (American, born in 1951)
1987
Object Place: High Falls, New York
Medium/Technique
18 kt yellow gold with 14 kt pink, green, and white golds and steel
Dimensions
Overall: 9.5 x 1 cm (3 3/4 x 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
The Daphne Farago Collection
Accession Number2006.492
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Contemporary Art, Americas
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Brooches
DescriptionSteel circular frame enclosing an irregularly-shaped multi-colored gold square with raised center. Gold element is attached to frame by multi-strand gold wires.
The rough edges and irregular tears in the gold sheet result from the maker's process of fusing different types of gold and rolling them through a mill. According the artist on May 27, 2010: "18 kt yellow gold is fused with 14 kt green and white golds and then rolled through a rolling mill--the resulting 'sheet' of patterned gold has fissures and tears that are a result of the stresses created by putting the unevenly fused surface through the rolling mill. The piece is then formed and fabricated, an acid finish creates a fire scale on the white gold, rendering it black."
The rough edges and irregular tears in the gold sheet result from the maker's process of fusing different types of gold and rolling them through a mill. According the artist on May 27, 2010: "18 kt yellow gold is fused with 14 kt green and white golds and then rolled through a rolling mill--the resulting 'sheet' of patterned gold has fissures and tears that are a result of the stresses created by putting the unevenly fused surface through the rolling mill. The piece is then formed and fabricated, an acid finish creates a fire scale on the white gold, rendering it black."
Marks
Applied plaque on back is engraved "SAUNDERS" and "18k" and "14k".
ProvenanceGayle Saunders; Daphne Farago, April 15, 1993 Daphne Farago; to MFA, 2006, gift of Daphne Farago.
CopyrightReproduced with permission.