April 2009Sterling silver A client asked me to design a bracelet for his wife on the occasion of the birth of their son, and pretty much gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to. He didn't want a cuff or a bangle, so I decided to make something of an amalgam between a chain and a sectioned bracelet. I was playing with different designs and doodles, and eventually decided to fashion the decorative links of the chain after a closed version the symbol for the ecliptic, or the "way of the sun" in astrology. According to the Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms, the ecliptic "in a natal chart... is also associated with blood relations and sexual contacts that lead to childbirth." Seemed appropriate given the nature of the gift! Each ecliptic-inspired link is hand-hammered to give the surface of the bracelet a little extra shimmer. The result was something unlike anything I'd ever done—surprisingly light and fluid in spite of the relative thickness of the gauge of wire used to create it. And it looks even better draped around a wrist than it does here.
