In the Spotlight: Barbara Michelle Jacobs Casts from Nature in the Concrete Jungle

What do the words "New York City" make you think of? Most people would list taxicabs, skyscrapers, throngs and throngs of people, and other signifiers of the ultimate urban landscape. For Barbara Polinsky of Barbara Michelle Jacobs Fine Jewelry, however, New York City represents an endless source of flowers, twigs, weeds, and other found objects from the natural world that can serve as the inspiration for her unique pieces of jewelry.

Barbara can zero in on a tiny flower growing through a crack in the asphalt and re-imagine it as a glimmering silver pendant.

Barbara's nature castings were recently featured in the article, Flora Refashioned, in Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine. In that article, Barbara shares a tutorial on how to make her coiled twig rings and she also tells about how she came upon her inspiration during a walk through Central Park one day:

Just missing the cross-town bus, I decided to meander home through Central Park instead of waiting for the next one. Enjoying the magnificence of the day and deep in thought, I heard a loud snap, looked down, and realized that I had stepped on and broken a branch. Picking up the very ordinary twig, I imagined what it would look like turned into metal and embellished with gems.

Do you find your inspiration in unlikely or surprising places? Leave us a comment and tells us about it!

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Are You Ready for Cutting-Edge Casting? Top 10 Reasons to Buy a J-2R

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Tech Support Team’s Top 5 Tools and Techniques of 2010!

Here in Tech Support some of the most interesting, fun, and challenging parts of our job is to evaluate and review new tools and equipment. But we don’t just review tools, we’re also constantly searching for new and innovative techniques that we can share with fellow jewelers. This past year we had the pleasure of testing dozens of new items and taking classes that expanded our jewelry universe. Between the testing and classes, a few tools and techniques struck us as being so cool that we want to sing about them from the mountaintop…

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