Eid Special Wedding Fashion 2014 Jewellery 10

Eid Special Wedding Fashion 2014 Jewellery.

By Aamir Mannan.

A large percentage of Eid's work is hollowware, such as this Convergences teapot, of sterling silver, epoxy, and patina.

4 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 3"

After five years of creating other people's designs, Eid was ready for some changes. There were two big ones in the next four years: sons Andy and Eric. Motherhood and metalsmithing didn't always coexist peacefully, but eventually her home-based jewelry business brought in enough to cover daycare expenses and buy her more time to hammer out her ideas.

When I no longer had daycare bills to pay, I felt as if I had received a grant and could take more chances with my work. I now had more time to create art jewelry. In 1990 my wonderful, generous mother-in-law inadvertently helped me start on a new thread when she commissioned a pin for her future daughter-in-law and instructed me to make something for myself, too. Well! Now I could justify making that time-consuming Celtic-style torque Fred Fenster had shown us. I made one that was 3/4" wide in sterling, and set rhodolite garnet bullets in the finials. It turned out so great I had it gold-plated and still wear this Tortive Neckring on big occasions. I've made about a dozen using a variety of techniques like fold-forming, anticlastic forming, and forging. I find, though, that not everyone is comfortable putting on a neckring, but despite the small buying clientele, I keep returning to it."

A New Twist. By the time Eid's torque with black pearl encrusted ends won the MJSA (Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America) Award in 1996, she was ready to try something new. As though on cue, she discovered a daring new technique that would give her jewelry a new twist. Jewelry guru Charles Lewton-Brain had a new approach to shaping metal, and he was ready and willing to share it.