Metalsmith and Visual Artist
Ladies of Lace
Sculpture / Ladies of Lace
Ladies of Lace is a collection of metal drawings that investigate the format of portraiture in the construction of femininity. The women imaged in these metal drawings stand out of the docile, obedient expectation of female identity. In their personal journeys to be in charge of their own situations, they have also worked to make change for all women. As public figures they have created a legacy of change for women while documenting their achievements and themselves through portraiture.
As an academically trained jeweler, I am interested in the language of adornment. My sculpture is made using both highly technical jewelry skills and industrial fabrication techniques. The steel lace in Elizabeth, Frida and Ruth all begin as a spool of mild steel wire that is woven and welded together again and again to create sheets of lace that looks delicate but are very strong. In all of the fabricated portraits the steel lace is then modified again to create the elements shaping the image of the subject. In Elizabeth, steel lace forms the backdrop that Elizabeth emerges from, her steel lace collar and her long strands of pearls are held in place by steel lace that is domed and formed into prongs to hold mother of pearl circles. In Frida, the steel lace is formed to make wavy folds of lace that frame Frida’s face and bulbous shapes below the wavey lace to elevate and hold the wavy folds off the horizon of Frida’s face. In Ruth, the drawn lines of steel lace form all the parts of the subject including her long black robes, her hands grasped together, her lace collar, face, hair, emerald earrings and even her books on the shelves behind her. Creating every element that shapes the image in these portraits out of different patterns of steel lace works to show the versatility of femininity in the construction of identity.
Historically, textiles were one of the few ways that upper class women were allowed to receive and education. Structural fabrication careers continue to be a vocation where men more commonly exist. Weaving delicate steel wire into lace and then using the industrial process of welding to hold the lace together displays the perfect intersection of materials and processes that have both masculine and feminine identities. Is the steel made feminine or the lace made masculine? It’s not important for me to answer this question but simply to ask my viewer consider it. Being powerful is not masculine or feminine but both.
Lace is rebellious because the women that made lace often worked outside of the male dominated economic system and were able to produce an income to support themselves or their families. Prior to the industrial revolution lace was one of the most valuable textiles in Europe. While more affluent women made their own lace because they could afford the materials and they had the luxury of free time to spend producing lace for themselves, it was more humble women who benefited most from lace production as a means to generate supplemental income.
Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth I is a rebel because she was a female monarch who ruled England and refused to marry a man a relinquish her power. Elizabeth understood the importance of her image and consistently reproduced and distributed her image to her public. In her portraits she presented herself as large, she looks directly at her viewer and she uses lace, jewelry and ornamentation to reinforce her power and status. During Elizabeth’s time it was mostly men, not women, who wore lace collars to display their wealth and status. However, Elizabeth’s lace collars became by far the largest. Elizabeth remains an important figure because she understood the power of her image and she closely controlled, crafted and distributed her image to reinforce her identity and create a long-lasting record of her impact.
Elizabeth is also a figure that comes with a complicated history because of her connection to colonialism. Since 2023, I remain a proud sustaining monthly donor to Crafting the Future, an organization that works to increase access to creative enrichment by connecting BIPOC artists with opportunities and offering continuing support once they arrive.
Ruth
Ruth Bader Ginsberg was only the second female to serve on the United States highest court when she took her seat on the Supreme Court in 1993. In her first Supreme Court photo, RBG and the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, both adorned their black judicial robes with a lace jabot. The jabot is a grouping of lace or other fabric fastened around the neck and worn over the front of a shirt or robe. This accessory had historically been worn by British male lawyers along with wigs in the courtroom. The decision by the only two women in the photo to appropriate a symbol of masculine power and feminize it, communicated that women could be both intellectually rigorous and feminine.
Throughout her career as a Supreme Court Justice, RBG had a large collection of collars that she wore, some made of lace, some of beads but all to visually represent the same message, power, wisdom and femininity. I have imaged Ruth with a collar she simply called her “favorite.” This is the Ruth Bader Ginsberg that I first came to know in 2008. This is my RBG.
Ginsberg worked her entire career to eliminate gender-based stereotyping in legislation and regulations. Ginsberg’s work paved the way to pass the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. This legislation made it so that women could then have a right to earn their own money, take out mortgages, open bank and credit card accounts without needing permission from their husbands. RBG also fought to win legislation so that women could attend public universities and receive the same educational opportunities as their male counterparts. Ruth fought to protect people so that employers could not discriminate against employees based on gender or reproductive choices. The collars that Ruth wore during her tenure as a Supreme Court Justice represent power for all women.
Frida
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter whose life was marked by struggle. She contracted polio at a young age which complicated walking for her and was in a bus accident when she was a young woman that left her with injuries that she would grapple with for the rest of her life. However, the profound love that she had for Diego Rivera during her adult years, which was often not returned to her, was a consistent subject that was painfully depicted in her most significant artworks.
In a self-portrait that she painted in 1948 she imaged herself in a traditional Tehuana head dress made of lace. The women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, are known around the world for their colorful traditional dress. The Tehuana women are also the matriarchal power central to the cultural and economic life of the region. Kahlo painted this self-portrait at the height of Diego’s womanizing. The lace in her painting fills most of the frame. She is so incredibly sad in this portrait that tears are streaming from her eyes. She is using adornment to both try to attract Diego’s attention and frame the pain that he is causing her. Her power in using lace is to deeply connect with her culture, show power and strength in her emotional struggle and uniquely adorn her refusal to accept Diego’s transgressions.
