Monday, April 26, 2010

Etching flipflops

A new necklace from Swamp Cartography. Made from photo etched silver sheet and Stradbroke Island pebbles. I imagine the pebbles were formed millions of years ago from bits of mountains long worn away. They weathered off and travelled down to a giant river valley now known as Moreton Bay. Masses of river rocks were tumbled along in its surging waters getting knocked about and polished and eventually sinking in sand and mud. Iceages came and went. More recently they were dredged up by the pacific swell and deposited at my toes on a beach on an island.
While this geological drama unfolded, plants, animals and people were evolving on the appearing and disappearing landforms.
In my necklace each piece of silver can flipover like a pebble in the surf . Different plants and combinations are revealed: wallum banksia, bracken fern, coral fern, pouched coral fern, twigrushes, reeds. Strange looking plants with prickly foliage. Each time the necklace is handled it changes with the flipflopping of the silver.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow!! Does that make 1024 different combinations? My maths is a bit rusty.
Very nice piece.