Cello Brooch, 2001

Russian filigree and forged brooch

In 2001 I was commissioned by a security specialist for Care International to create this brooch for his new girlfriend who was a cellist. His job entailed securing minefields and similarly treacherous terrains before aid workers and celebrities entered the area. He was leaving on a long mission overseas and wanted to give her something special by which to remember him...and it needed to be very small for her to want to wear it.

I spent two days researching how I might create a filigree cello in miniature that would not look like a violin. The obvious answer was the end pin, but the proportions and curvature of the front of the body were important as well.

Constructing on such a minute scale was challenging. I first created the cello's filigree body from 18 karat frame wire and fine silver filler wires before forging and fabricating the other parts of the instrument. I forged the neck and tailpiece from sterling wire and tapered the 18 karat gold end pin. I fabricated sterling sheet to form the peg box and forged the 18 karat gold pegs to slide into it. For the scroll at the top, I forged a tiny, thick sheet of sterling into a triangle, making it thinner at the base, and then curled and hammered it to mimic the scroll's crescent roll like shape. I filed grooves in the bridge to support the 22 karat gold wire strings. I soldered the various parts to each other and then to filigree body. Finally, I attached the strings, which, like in the real instrument, are secured through the tailpiece and wrap around the forged pegs.

After more than 20 years of its image ranking among my highest online, it continues to spark emails from people asking if I might create one for them. I'm happy to say it remains one of a kind. I do not know how the gift was received, if its recipient stayed with the man who commissioned it, or if he even made it home unharmed. Although I never knew the end, the beginning of their story remains as integral a component of my work as any forged component or spiral of wire within it.