Bracelets​

Gold with diamond

The shape of the boat appears frequently in my work. I call the pointed oval a boat when it’s plump and a kernel when it’s slim. The boat is not just any boat. I saw it when I was on the Faeroe Islands on a cold February day, years ago. The trip went to Kirkjuboe where I wanted to see the Magnus Cathedral, which was begun in the 14th century and still not finished. Next to the cathedral was the royal seat and between the two buildings a stone wall. Time slowed down then, as I contemplated a boat, which was leaning up against the wall. It had a pointed bow in both ends, just like the Vikings’ boats had. The Boat Bracelet in this picture is made out of seven boats, which are all folded in over the hand. On the wrist it constantly takes on new shapes.

There’s something special about tinkling jewellery. Some people perceive it as noise; in others it evokes pleasant memories. Bracelet with Bell makes a blissful little sound. The tone from this bracelet is an E. For a while I’ve wondered how to change the tone of a bracelet. Now I know: When the two elements are equally thick, the tone is A, the concert pitch. Perfect balance.

Silver bangle lookeing at the clouds.

When you change the thickness of the two golden threads, both the mood and the tone of the bracelet changes. Now when I know that A, the concert pitch, sounds when the two threads are equally thick, I set that as a challenge to myself: Make a bracelet that jangles in A.

Gold is an enticing and magic substance. When you work with it, it becomes hard and springy. If you want to return to the soft and yielding gold, it only needs heat. The springy bracelets were developed in 2006, when I experimented with metallurgy, trying to find the breaking point for the springy thread.

The pearl is one of nature’s poetic wonders. It doesn’t matter whether the oyster that produced it lived in fresh- or saltwater. But both types of pearls get their glow from contact with the skin. “Loop” twirls itself around the wrist and finds rest where the long tail with the brown pearl reaches for the thumb.

Cross comes with black, white or maybe yellow pearls and is a very light bracelet, which you wear with the pearls facing the palm of your hand. The bracelet is sculpted to fit the wearer.

The next three bracelets have royal names because they resemble royal crowns. They are wide, but at the same time light. When you wear a bracelet like that, you can look right through the form. On the inside they bend “the wrong way”, meaning that the side facing your skin is convex which gives it a lovely, silky feel.

Both the royal bracelets and the other large bracelets in two layers are made with my favourite hammer, which is an old hammer originally used for making cutlery. When I hold it in my hand, I get the feeling that it was made for women.

It always amazes me that when I work on this bracelet I’m hearing sounds that smiths have always heard..

The title for this bracelet, the Boomerang, is inspired by the shape of the armring’s opening. Here you get a look into the golden interior of the bracelet, while seeing the boomerang shape of the opening.

All over the world there are princes. I think of the black, the red and the white and here the Yellow Prince. The dark interior of the bracelet creates a dramatic and fascinating contrast with the yellow diamonds.

I created Deer Trail in 2001, the year of 9/11. That year in particular we thought about how much the world can change in a second. Deer Trail reminds us of how quickly the trail we leave in the world disappears.

I don’t know the metallurgical reason, but the red gold is not as easy to work with as the yellow. In spite of the difficulties I love creating jewellery with this particular colour gold. Maybe it’s the slight understatement of colour? At first you don’t quite know what you have in front of you – and that rather suits me.

To make a piece of jewellery which contains a kernel is like sowing a seed in your mind, hoping it will sprout and grow.

The bracelets I make are almost always associated with necklaces of the same name, but they are more robust. Sometimes I set a yellow or a red diamond into the lock.

Dorte – well, it could just as well have been Deirdre or Doreen because it’s the D I’m after. But the very Danish name Dorte sounds exactly as robust as the feel you get from the bracelet.