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| Enamel earrings inspired by the color of Bradford Pear leaves. |
In “Colorful Colorado” nature imposes herself on our senses
throughout the year. We are blessed with a kaleidoscope of continuous change
and vitality. We watch nearly in awe as our mountains and our prairie
transition from season to season, from arid to lush, lifeless to effervescent,
in an endless story of birth and resurrection. But for those of us lucky enough
to possess one in our yard, of all of nature’s showpieces and specimens, none
surpasses the majestic Bradford Pear in her display of colors and natural hues.
In the spring our Bradford Pear explodes into a massive tuft
of cotton candy, urgently demanding our attention before an errant breeze can
scatter her blossoms across the lawn like driven snow. Summer’s warmth brings
forth her foliage, so dense that it conceals the space it occupies, affording a
canopy of shade to the lawn, nesting spaces for birds, and refuge for
squirrels. When fall arrives, the pear
expends the energy that she has hoarded throughout the summer. It is as if her
leaves attempt to re-bloom, as she becomes a palette for a thousand shades of
yellow, burning into orange, then crimson, then copper. Then finally, exhausted
and spent, her leaves take flight with the first winter blast, to reveal the
silhouette of her limbs in a pointillist sea of tiny sugar pears that remain to
sustain her resident birds and squirrels throughout the winter.
The Bradford Pear leaves us not only with memories of her
grandeur, but also with artistic inspiration. If only to capture one single
moment of her glorious transition - into jewelry! I waited breathlessly for the
radiance of the kiln to subside, and for the glow of the enamel to “fit” itself
into its final glaze, to know if I had been able to replicate that instant when
she “bloomed” her final golden farewell to this season.
This pair of dangle earrings holds true to the promise of enamel jewelry for its beautiful color and gorgeous, glossy finish.
