What is it: Jewelry designed from metals annealed and fused in a painstaking process invented in 17th century Japan. The pattern formed from the accreted bands is called mokume-gane. Available in styles Arctic, Aspen, Aspen Nights, Sedona, and Sedona Nights; each one is a different mixture of 14k palladium white gold, 14k pink gold, 18k yellow gold, and oxidized/sterling silver.

Who made it: Lisa Jane Grant left her job as a corporate consultant to devote her energy to making jewelry after learning the practice of mokume-gane in 2004.

Where it’s made: Cumberland, Maine.

Why we love it: Each piece is a distinctive document of Grant’s mastery of metallurgy and metalsmithing. No two pieces are identical in form or coloration—give one to the one-of-a-kind person in your life.

Where you can get it: Earrings, necklaces, rings, and bracelets are all available on Grant’s website.

The post Object: Mixed Metal Mokume-Gane Jewelry appeared first on Take Magazine.

Softspoken by nature, Chris Plaisted builds sculptures that are anything but quiet. Complex arrangements of steel, copper, wood, and concrete commune together to form sculptures, large and small, that emit a brooding but gentle grace. Originally from New Hampshire, Plaisted graduated from Parson’s New School for Design in New York City, and has maintained a longstanding career as a graphic design artist. However, six years ago he reignited a childhood love for woodwork and metalsmithing that now drives his creative practice.

“My work tends to focus on forms of conflict,” he says. “It may be in the concept—man vs. nature, social vs. emotion—or it may be the tension created by the use of contrasting materials.” Focusing primarily on what he sees as “permanent materials” such as wood, steel, copper, concrete, and other precious metals, Plaisted intensifies his materials by placing them in opposition, highlighting their strengths and vulnerabilities.

With an air of mystery, Plaisted’s sculptures look like stories waiting to unfold. His sculpture Harbinger, impressive in both size and skill, is inspired by religious artifacts at The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of European medieval art and architecture. “As you walk around it, you will see a cross, a 4 for the [four] horseman of the apocalypse and a 7 for the seven plagues,” he says. Smaller sculptures, such as Rapture, display a secret intimate story between the materials of steel, copper, and wood coming together in an delicate and enduring embrace.

Anabassis, height: 15ft. On display at the Sculpture Now, an exhibition of large outdoor sculpture at The Mount, Lenox, MA., image courtesy of Catherine Plaisted

Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood between Candlewood Lake and the Housatonic River in Connecticut, Plaisted draws inspiration from the nature around him, staying busy across many creative forms that include sculpture, graphic design, and painting. Plaisted hails from a creative family; his father is an acclaimed pastiche artist and his grandmother is an award-winning tinsel folk artist, and both laid the groundwork for his creative childhood. At an early age, he was introduced to metal and woodwork by a neighbor who was a welder.

Scrolls, steel, image courtesy of Chris Plaisted

Plaisted’s work currently resides at The Mount, the Berkshire historic estate of famed novelist Edith Wharton, as well as the Pierce Ball Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut. “As I continue to hopefully create visually appealing art, I don’t want to be constrained by style or medium,” Plaisted says. “Quite the opposite; they should flow to the next piece no matter the form or expression.”

Chris Plaisted–sculptor
New Milford, Connecticut
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Top image, Harbinger, steel, width: 10’, height: 12’, depth: 10’. Image courtesy of Catherine Plaisted.

The post Forms in Conflict appeared first on Take Magazine.

Toni Johnson’s radiant energy cannot be missed. Adorned in bright colors and multiple pieces of jewelry, she emits warmth with a glance and a joyous laugh. Now residing in Hartford, Connecticut, with her “twin-flame” and love, Azua Echevarria (owner of Age Into Beauty), Johnson’s healing creativity is seen in her unique jewelry, Rework Creative, and several projects with her partner including the Wild Women’s Collective.

Johnson has lived many lives: as a hairdresser post high school, a singer with a record deal at Capitol Records, a photography stylist, and now as a jewelry designer who uses the power of stones for both aesthetic beauty and healing. “You know I have always been a healer. Whether through singing or counseling friends, it has always flowed naturally from me,” Johnson says. “I have always held a lot of healing joy for the world around me.”

Johnson’s journey into metalsmithing and jewelry design began as part of her own self healing after experiencing a lull in her music career and leaving California to become a photo studio stylist in New York City in the early 2000s. “I moved to New York to take a break from music and found a career that I felt I could do full-time until I found another path in music,” she says. “But then I realized that my music path had just come to an end and I turned to making jewelry to help with my own grief—the grief of losing my music career, the grief of losing a lover—and it became something of my own.”

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Roy Photography

Channeling her creativity to heal isn’t that surprising. After all, Johnson has been creative since early childhood. “My grandmother would always say, ‘There is nothing new under the sun,’ and it’s true. Everything we do is just a reworking and reinterpretation of the things we experience around us,” Johnson says. The concept of “reworking” is at the heart of Rework Creative, where Johnson incorporates the healing powers of earthbound metals, minerals, and stones to reimagine and reinvent their beauty through jewelry.

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Steve Ben-Shalom

After experiencing a life-changing car accident, Johnson says her body began to undergo physical and psychic changes. At that time, her jewelry shifted from beadwork to increased use of crystals and copper metals, both conduits for energetic healing. As friends and strangers expressed interest in her work, she decided to begin selling her work in 2008. “Crystals are very reactive to mental energy, so as I create, it is all about implementing love vibrations,” she says. “And I get responses from clients and customers that they can feel this in their pieces, so it reinstates and validates the work that I am doing.”

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Roy Photography

Although Johnson has been offered a chance to mass produce her designs and sell in larger retail stores, she has decided to stay grassroots with her work. “I have turned down the opportunity to sell my work to larger vendors because I want my jewelry to always be from my hands. It is my baby,” she says. “I charge all of the pieces myself through song and touch, and that is what makes the work so special, because I am energetically connected to those who wear my jewelry, and I try to bring joy directly to them.”

Johnson has sold her work to artists and musicians all over the world, including pieces commissioned for Lily Tomlin for her role in the Netflix series, Grace and Frankie. She is currently a part of Brunch of Art, put on by the Wild Women’s Collective, as well as collaborating with Echevarria and Hartford-based dancer Arien Wilkerson on a play called Universal Womb that is still in process. Besides creating jewelry, Johnson also works as a healer doing mineral prescriptions and collaborating on artwork with her partner.

Toni Johnson–jewelry designer, Rework Creative
New Haven, Connecticut
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Top image by Roy Photography

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