A piece of jewelry can change the way we see a shoulder, frame a face, or make us notice the space between the body and an object. Marjorie Schick’s work makes those relationships difficult to overlook. Looking at her jewelry encourages me to begin a design with the body itself, before deciding on a stone, a texture, or a familiar outline.
Thinking beyond the usual jewelry outline
American jewelry artist Marjorie Schick (1941–2017) developed an approach in which jewelry operated as sculpture worn on the body. Her Smithsonian oral history describes her graduate study with Alma Eikerman at Indiana University and her interest in building wearable sculpture. The Museum of Arts and Design identifies her sculptural papier-mâché forms and linear constructions as an important contribution to jewelry beginning in the late 1960s. [1, 2]
That context matters because her work emerged within a broader reconsideration of jewelry’s materials and purpose. Wood, paint, and paper offered possibilities beyond the familiar expectations of a precious metal object. A material could be chosen because of its weight, color, or ability to build a particular form.
The body gives scale a meaning
Schick’s Neckpiece from 1986, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, is made of wood and paint. Its recorded dimensions extend more than two feet in each direction. That scale makes it useful to study as a relationship between object and wearer, rather than as a necklace enlarged without further thought. [3]
When you study a work like this, trace where its lines travel. Notice how much of its visual presence comes from open space. Ask where your eye stops and where it moves again. Those are design observations you can bring back to a small brooch or pendant without borrowing Schick’s recognizable forms.
Color can organize a construction
The Smithsonian’s discussion of Schick emphasizes constructed form, color relationships, space, and scale in relation to the human figure. [4] My design takeaway is that color can help us read the construction. It can connect separated elements, emphasize a direction, or interrupt a repeated shape.
Try drawing the same pendant twice. Keep its silhouette identical, but place a color accent near the center in one drawing and at the edge in the other. The apparent balance may change even though the metal outline has not. That is a useful reason to make color decisions before fabrication is complete.
Make a model before committing to metal
Choose a location on the body and build a quick model with cardstock, paper strips, or soft wire. Photograph it in place from the front and side. A model resting on the bench will not tell you whether it tilts away from the chest or interferes with an arm.
Check the physical questions alongside the visual ones. Where does it touch the skin? Does it swing, catch, or tip? What fastening would support it? Can the wearer put it on comfortably? A dramatic silhouette still needs a construction appropriate to its intended use.
For your second model, change only the scale or the amount of open space. Compare the photographs before adding decorative detail. This gives you evidence about the design instead of requiring you to solve every uncertainty in expensive material.
A question for your design notebook
Schick’s work offers permission to investigate the body as part of the composition. You do not have to make large jewelry to use that lesson. Even a small earring establishes a relationship with the jaw, hair, and movement of the head.
Explore the other Makers Who Shaped Me articles in the Metalsmith Mentor Journal, then choose one piece of your own to photograph on the body. What changes when you see it being worn? Share one observation in the comments.
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Sources
[1] Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Marjorie Schick oral history https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-marjorie-schick-11818
[2] Museum of Arts and Design, Marjorie K Schick https://collections.madmuseum.org/people/1177/marjorie-k-schick
[3] Smithsonian American Art Museum, Neckpiece https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/neckpiece-33790
[4] Smithsonian American Art Museum, Marjorie Schick https://americanart.si.edu/artist/marjorie-schick-6281