Talking about his way of painting, Hundertwasser explained how sometimes his paintings resembled donkeys: it was impossible to show them the way because they would stubbornly go as they pleased until they reached an unknown destination. The only thing you could do was to watch them flow.
That's what happened with this ring. It obstinately followed a mysterious and unknown path, that I, stubborn as well, tried to redirect according to my drawings and models.
In my initial design the beautiful chalcedony would rest inside a conic structure representing a clam, which in turn would be attached to thin metal layers that symbolize time, tides and how to resist firmly the power of the waves.
But once created in metal, the Clam wanted to attach itself to a different form, it wouldn't let me follow my plans, it forced me to make more models, more drawings, to leave it abandoned on a table, to even think about discarding it.
There's no longer night than that of a designer who's in love with a form but can't quite understand it.
Without much time left, I surrendered to an inexplicable force that whispered: file here, hammer there, the little spheres should be welded over there.
And when I finished, I looked at the Clam on its wavelike pedestal and I was very excited, profoundly surprised.
Clam Ring - Blue Chalcedony and sterling silver
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