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Moonlight Jewels
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Jewelry Art By Chris & Shani Christenson
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~ We create our jewelry using many techniques. Hand fabrication, Lost wax casting from fabricated originals, champleve enameling and cameo carving. We hand carve the faces from opal, mother of pearl and antique ivory piano keys. This form of jewelry originated in the 15th century French court and was called a Commesso. It differed from a cameo in that only the face was carved from shell or stone and the design was completed in metals. A unique feature of our cameos is that we finish them with a complete design on the back for a reversible piece of jewelry.

~ One style of earrings we make are glass enameled using a technique called Champleve. This process starts by drawing a design then hand fabricating an original model. We take a rubber mold and then go through the lost wax casting process. Then we are ready to enamel. Champleve is the process of packing ground glass into the recessed areas of the design, firing the piece in a kiln at 1500 degrees to melt the glass, then grinding away the excess . The earrings are fired one last time for the final polish and are finished with matching beads .

~ We personally complete each and every step in our jewelry’s creation and each piece is hand signed. Our style and intricate design reflects our fascination with nature as well the art of many old cultures including Celtic, Native American, Egyptian and the Renaissance.

~ Our education started in high school and continued while traveling the country taking several jewelry apprenticeships. The most influential of these was our year and a half at the Lady of the Lake Foundation. A small, private jewelry school founded and run by a well known spiritual artist and author named Heyoka Merrifield. He is also a Native American Medicine man and he taught us to bring spiritual meaning into our jewelry using symbolism and ceremony. We have been making and selling jewelry at art shows and galleries for 11 years.

~ We live and create our jewelry in Mendocino California on the magnificent northern coast. We are inspired by beauty that surrounds us in the natural world and we strive to capture that energy and magic in our jewelry. With a background in old world jewelry fabrication our jewelry has the qualities of fine craftsmanship combined with intricate symbolic design to create what we call Jewelry Art.

~Enjoy~

Moonlight Jewels
707-937-2571
P.O. Box 1901
Mendocino,
CA, 95460
jewels@mcn.org
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