YOU MAKE ME SWEAT
© Kathy Williams. All Rights Reserved.
This pepper that sweats was created using polished steel tools and hammering two sheets of sterling silver into mirror images. This painstaking effort slowly pushes the metal one millimeter at a time. The metal must be repeatedly reversed and tooled to attain realistic detail. (This is a traditional metalsmithing process known as “chasing and reposse.”) A three-dimensional form was achieved by soldering the front and back together. The edges were filed to hide the seam and a darkening agent was applied to the silver to pop out the features.
Camouflaged as the stem, a small stopper slides out to access the opening. You fill the pepper with water. Tiny rubber rings hug the tip providing an air-tight seal when the stem is reinserted. After time in the freezer the hot pepper brooch is ready to wear.
Perspiration beads up on the pepper reflecting the light. Emulating nature by sweating, the pepper cools you when you wear it.
© Kathy Williams. All Rights Reserved.
