About

Artist’s Statement for Joan Furilla

The world is full of textures everywhere I look.  I find interesting textures in everything from rocks to nuts to seashells.  My jewelry usually starts with a shape and evolves with the addition of one or more textures.  Inspiration could come from dried mushrooms, a meteorite, or bark on the tree in our yard.

My medium is silver metal clay, which I use to create fine silver jewelry.  Silver metal clay is a relatively new medium that contains tiny particles of pure silver mixed with a small amount of organic binder and water. The metal clay is fired in a kiln burning away the binder and fusing the tiny particles into a solid piece of silver, 99.9% pure. This jewelry is called fine silver and has more silver than sterling, which is only 92.5% silver.

I find that the nature of the metal clay medium frees me to create beautiful, highly textured surfaces.  Combining these textures with different shapes allows me to transform my surroundings into wearable art.  I see my jewelry as a reflection of the beauty I find in the small details of the world around me.

Bio:

Joan Furilla currently lives in Peoria, Illinois and has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. Joan is married with one child.

Send me an email to be added to my updates list.  I send an announcement about my upcoming appearances.  I can be contacted at jewelryjoan@gmail.com

Links:

My Flickr photostream is an ongoing project.  I am compiling pictures of many of my pieces there so this may be a great place for you to go to get a sense of what I do.

If you would like to read my tweets please find me on Twitter.com under the username of jfurilla.  If you do not use a blog reader or have not subscribed to my blog this may be a way to find out when I post here.