Lilith

(2011), 3.75" x 2.5", silver art clay (shaped, carved, fired, enameled and burnished), vitreous enamel, moonstone cab and briolette bead, silver wire, silver bezel wire, Laura Mears porcelain bead [link]

This design has been floating around in my head for a while. It features the same enigmatic and beautiful/ creepy face bead as my embroidered evening bag [link]

The design fastens to a necklace with two wire-loops at the back for quite a stunning pendant. And so far this is the crispest and most controlled enamel work I've been able to do. In fact, I am pleased as pie with this one!

If you think the shape is somewhat suggestive, rest assured, that's not your dirty mind playing tricks on you. The Lilith myth embodies like no other the tension between seduction and procreation, male supremacy, female rebellion, ownership of new life and the general battle of the sexes. In western culture the face of the enigmatic female, the daughter/ mother/ whore sits right at the center of the whole neurotic complex as an image of desire and fear, love and hatred.

And now I'll quit the psychobabble - hope you enjoy.