metal is clay

"Shimmy" post earrings in sterling silver and gold-filled chain. "Concrete & Graffiti Series". Christine Pedersen, 2024. I’m really excited to be part of a jeweller’s artist residency this November, here in Calgary, at Sparrow Artspace. Thirteen local jewellery artists have each made 5 pairs of one of a kind earrings for a gallery show, plus there will be pop-up shows throughout the month with lots more hand-made jewellery, drop-in demos of jewellery-making, and a few community workshops too if you would like to try your hand (stacking rings, dangle earrings). You can find all the details on the group instagram (@makersdozen_yyc) and Facebook pages.  “Shimmy” earrings are one of my 5 pairs in the show; I worked with a favourite theme, “Concrete & Graffiti”, named after a large cocktail ring commission I made in 2012, and inspired by the urban landscape: industrial metal, locks, links, chains, and concrete. There’s lots of richly textured silver, stro...

She said “yes!”. It’s such a joy and a privilege to be asked to make that special ring—and this was an intriguing project right from the start: our bride-to-be had chosen her diamonds, was totally ready to have her custom betrothal band commissioned, and wanted to have no part in the design process. Just wow! The whole idea of that made me smile so much - how exciting would that be? Just waiting for that shiny surprise… 1 4k Palladium white gold cast betrothal band, with 3 princess-cut diamonds. Christine Pedersen, 2018.  Presented in hand-made ring-box, designed and built by Kelo Designs of Calgary. Kudos to Alex, the groom-to-be, for leading this wonderful task, and giving me some really good ideas about what Ali didn’t like—that was such a strong way to start a design process for you both. And cheers for the family brainstorm where I got to know Ali more as a person through all of you: we imagined what sort of ring we might create—something that could fit her per...

For every piece of jewellery I make there is a story. It can be simple, just a note on the “why?” that led to the forms and textures, or the feeling that I want to remember. Sometimes the single idea that could become a piece, conceived way before the act of making, can become so over-whelming that I need to write a whole new reality for the jewellery to exist within. That’s how it was for “Pull”, the first piece of jewellery in a body of work that became the ReFind Collection *. It caused me to look at materials in my home, especially the things that were routinely thrown away, very differently. It was like waking up to realize I just hadn’t been paying the right kind of attention to all the “stuff” in other areas of my life; realizing that maybe jewellery could be linked to something as obscure as industrial-scale food-processing and packaging—if I allowed my mind to receive the information, differently. I am very honoured that my necklace has been included in Mark Fenn’s new ...

I will be riding off to Bluerock to join sculptor Kindrie Grove, painter Jennifer Mack, metal artist Simon Wroot, and equine jewellery maker Simone Schlichting to present “Meet The Herd!” at Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond, Alberta. We will be presenting equine art and artist demos over the weekend of July 16 and 17, 2016. Full details here: http://bluerockgallery.ca/blogs/events/meet-the-herd-july-16-17-2016 I love making equine-inspired art but it is usually a fairly private obsession as I mainly create commissions in clay - I will have new clay horse pieces, and chased metal pictures available. There will also be new ceramic work for Bluerock - large porcelain platters, small vases and covered jars, some porcelain sculpture, and a few bright bowls to gladden hearts and tables. Pieces are all hand-built and finished by me at my home studio—it takes a long time to make and fire the work, and I am now starting to build an inventory of my favourite forms alongside my vases at ...

I like to think - hope - that the work I make will last. Certainly metal and clay have a habit of being highly durable, but what I really mean is that I hope that when someone commissions a piece of hand-made work they are creating something for themselves, for life.  I recently had the pleasure of making this new 14k wedding band for a 30th anniversary—updating a slim traditional band to become a commemorative token in the client’s preferred personal style. The band is engraved with her wedding date, and my chop. My client commissioned her very own everyday heirloom. Ladies 14k yellow gold textured wedding band, engraved with date and artist's chop. Christine Pedersen. 2016. And what of future generations? Original artwork is likely to live on with them. That feels good.

Jeff de Boer and his apprentice Dylan Puddu have been developing the Gearing collection for a while now, and in 2015, they finally invited me to start playing in the toy-box with them! I must have hinted loudly enough at how cool I think the Gearing components really are… We have lots of plans and new work to come, with one of a kind and stone-set pieces.  Please contact Jeff if you would like to know more. Armét-Haus Gearing components become cufflinks... Set with rhodolite garnets. Custom design by Christine Pedersen. Armét-Haus Gearing pendant: Jeff de Boer and Dylan Puddu. Avenue Magazine published a neat article on Jeff's studio and the (slightly over-whelming!) range of projects that he is working on at any one time :)

Makers, the clients that commission them, and those who receive our work as gifts become entangled, forever, through an original piece. Makers fashion the physical thing, but it is their creations that build memories. As I consider the enduring nature of metal and stone I fully expect that this new pendant could be handed on to another generation. It’s a lovely thought that someone that I will probably never meet might one day inherit both the pendant and the story of how it came to be made. It is a gift to me, as the maker, to be part of this experience. Thank you to my client—SA—for commissioning the piece, and I hope it brings your family joy. One Becomes Many: SA . Bronze pendant with raw emerald crystal set in sterling silver. Cast and constructed. Leather necklace and hand-carved recycled ebony piano key toggle. Pendant length 50mm.  Christine Pedersen. 2015. Additional design info: the pendant design originated in a linked cast necklace, where multiple co...

I'm sure it happens all the time to other artists, but this was my first time: I had that instant feeling of "I have to make work for this show".  So I dropped everything, and chased horses. I had a blissful summer, working away in the basement, and the result is “In Dreams”, a 17-piece installation now on show in the Alberta Craft Council's “Well In Hand” exhibition . This is a multi-artist show in the large, downstairs Feature Gallery space, and there is a really exciting range of scales and themes in the work. Life-sized figurative sculpture, jewellery, artwork for the walls and home, and conceptually-based work: it is clear from the artist's statements that the welfare and protection of the horse in society is on everyone's mind. Very gratifying that we are all,  first and foremost,  horse-lovers.

Convocation seems a long time ago now, my Jewellery + Metals Program class-mates alphabetically woven into the long line of bright smiling faces being ejected from under-graduate life, out into the world. I didn’t graduate with them, but a little piece of me crossed the stage in the very specific form of a grad ring commission... concrete & graffiti. Sterling silver, quartz. 2012. I delivered it on the morning of convocation, down in the basement as the grads lined up. We joked: “With this ring, I thee graduate…”. Super-tired from finishing the piece at 3am, and with just a cruel 20 minutes for pictures, it all melted away in the pleasure of watching my friend open the box, sort of squeal (yes, she did), and take out her grad gift to herself, the piece of jewellery that she had chosen to honour her achievement. concrete & graffiti. Sterling silver, quartz. 2012. Inspired by the ACAD stairwells, this ring was made from concrete-textured sterling silver, with a...

There's a fairly long line-up of stuff that gets me hot under the collar… This is also the title of a sure to be excellent upcoming show featuring contemporary necklaces that I, sadly, won't be in. So I decided to have a solo show and post a picture of my current favourite new necklace: "For The Girl Who Has Everything: A Snack". "For The Girl Who Has Everything: A Snack". Sterling silver, stainless steel, gluten free cookie, brass, cubic zirconia. Constructed. 2012. There is at least one reason I won't be in the show: I didn't enter. And there's a reason I didn't enter… That would be the $30 fee to have my entries reviewed for potential inclusion. Simply put, I have hemorrhaged far too much cash recently entering shows—the same amount would have bought me a considerable amount of raw metal and gemstones, a run of business and post-cards, or even the best part of the airfare to go see the show! It's not that I'm against ...

I think I'm an artist… But I make jewellery and ceramics. I recently made a piece in metals that looks and functions like a picture. And you can wear it if you so choose… A Still Life With Gin And Oranges  was provoked into being by the selection criteria published by a big Canadian emerging artists art fair, who excluded anything "decorative" or that could be used. Their potentially apartheid approach to anything clay or textile was overcome by including sculpture in their definition of art (so just to be clear: 3D work must be neither useful nor decorative to be art. Anything 2D is art).  And so I give thanks to ARTINFO for this thoughtful piece on the art fair . I note that the red leather sofa (mentioned lower down in the article) would have been specifically excluded at my fair, because it was, well, useful - and because the organizers also specifically excluded furniture.  A Still Life With Gin And Oranges - picture, pendant, art? Chased and constr...

And so this is Christmas, 2011. This time of year always sets me thinking about the big scheme of things, from the very close to home and my love for the people I am with, to feeling so small and far apart - missing those far away, or sadly gone from this life. It's the latter that sends me to the big cosmological questions, quite literally to ponder life, the universe, and everything. A pierced copper star for a friend's tree. 2009. There is apparently a beautiful reality - cosmologically speaking - that we contain elements from the stars, and we return this gift to the cosmos when we pass. Our atoms continue to move through the universe, uniting us with all of life. My work is frequently inspired by ideas like this, relating our very human quest to understand the natural history of our universe with the emotional experience of living, and loving. A Big Pi Universe. Cast sterling silver pendant. 2011. I'm sharing a picture of my piece called "A Big Pi ...

His & Hers Nerd Pendants. Sterling silver. 2011. There is no point in denying it: I am a nerd. I designed these pendants for the "Branded" exhibition at the fabulous Influx Gallery in Calgary this summer. I like to bring my background in science and natural history into my art work, and in this case, I also brought some political advocacy. In an era in which some cultures still deny females equal access to education, I used the loaded motif of the apple to create a context to present the writing to the viewer. Here's the full artist statement: His and her “ nerd ” pendants confidently declare affiliation with a tribe that delights in knowledge, education and technology. Nerdism nourishes the world around us, and we are proud of that contribution. His “ nerd ” pendant is about strength in identity. Styled after a traditional branding iron, the pendant is a rugged and substantial piece of silver, designed to perpetuate this important meme beyond one life...