Why Hippo Jewelry?
My hippo jewelry was born out a love of creating all sorts of jewelry designs. And of course I was encouraged by my customers who collected hippo designs!
Long ago, in the dawn of The Magic Zoo, I made hippo jewelry in polymer clay. But when my talent and my interest developed more, I decided that a sterling silver hippo design would be an exciting change. And this matched the requests I continually got for hippopotamus jewelry. It was time!
Thus was created my brand new Hippo line of pendants, pins and charms.
I am speaking in the plural, but at the present time only the sterling silver hippo jewelry is on my website. But as my customers know by now, all of my sterling silver designs can also be cast in 14K gold.
How is a New Jewelry Design Created?
As with all of my jewelry, I start a design by studying the habits and lives of the animals I’m designing. Here is a basic rundown of how I come up with a new design:
- Do a study of the animal online, whether it be a hippo, a platypus or whatever!
- Study any reference books I have on hand about this animal
- If all else fails, go to the library and check out books (especially children’s books, which often have the best and clearest photos.)
Next I grab a blob of clay and start to form physical ideas:
- If I’m designing a hippo jewelry piece or any jewelry design for that matter, I first soften up the clay to make it easy to work with.
- Next I squeeze the clay into the basic shape of the animal. If I’m designing a hippopotamus for instance, I would make a long oval shape, then form the head and legs from that basic shape.
- Do this again and again until I have something that looks good enough to proceed with.
- Finalize the design, and add any details I want with an Exacto knife and other tools.
- Leave it for a day, then come back and start all over if I’m still not happy with it.
It can take days to create a design I’m happy with. And believe me, if I’m not happy with my hippo jewelry or whatever it is I’m making, you will never see it on my site!
Like many other artists, I am harder on myself than my customers would ever be. And sometimes, after a couple years have passed, I will discontinue a line of jewelry and start all over again. This is actually quite fun. My skills are always improving, and revisiting an old design and recreating it is part of the joy.
I would love to expand on my African animal series, and perhaps even add another hippo charm or hippo pendant design. But it all depends on my inspiration and time. With so many animals yet uncreated by this artist, it’s hard to make promises!
Is there an African animal you would like to see this Magic Zoo artist create? I love to hear from my customers and fans.