The world in black and white - a jewelry designer point of view

Lately, I find myself attracted more and more to black and white.

Moonlight and a palm tree in our garden, photographed by Amy Kanka Valadarsky 

Months ago, when writing the post on silver jewelry, I wrote about the specific characteristic of silver that allows to turn its color to black.
I found a few pieces that demonstrated this beautifully......but did not really use this in my work.
I started spending more and more time looking for ways to emphasize the shape and texture of my pieces.
And not surprisingly, the more I worked on this, the less color I used.

Our bedroom window. The drape is almost transparent.
The beautiful shadows almost invisible ... unless shown
in black and white.
Photographed by Amy Kanka Valadarsky

Color has a way of demanding attention to itself. And rightfully so, since it can be sooooo beautiful - but this comes at a price. It steals attention from the more subtle aspects, the ones that do not shout, they only whisper...

In parallel to my jewelry work, I started to photograph.
Not just my jewelry pieces, but really start using the camera to get another angle of the world.

Unlike working on a piece of jewelry, that can take days to complete, in our digital era, 'creating' a photo takes seconds.

Results are immediate, there is no real cost of making a mistake ( ...most of the time).

So here I am, camera in hand, finding myself photographing light. Trying to capture the essence of places, of people. And slowly.....moving from color photos....to black and white.

My beloved adopted granddaughter, Alma. Look at the beauty of her eye-lashes.
The delicacy of a single strand of hair on her forehead.
Nothing, including the pink dress distracts you from seeing it - in a black and white photo.
Photographed by Amy Kanka Valadarsky

There is nothing like black and white to emphasize light and shades, the purity of a contour, to make us look, really look at the picture without being hijacked to the 'ah....what a beautiful sunset'.

My stepdaughter, Ayelet.
Would you notice the freckles if you would have the sunset colors in the background?
Photographed this one evening on the beach

 Sterling silver pendant

Back to my jewelry workbench - molding a dry cactus leaf into necklaces.

Realizing for the thousand's time how nature is the best artist of all.

How can I show these artful veins to their best advantage? You guessed right.

Black and white.

Working with silver, oxidizing it to a pitch black shade, then polishing it to reveal the shiny silver color on the upper part of the veins - and here it is.

Another version of the cactus leaf pendant
Immediately grabbed by my dear husband :)

Nature's art -
I'm just there to make it wearable.

Did I mention I am falling in love with black and white????
How about you?

Until next post,
Have a wonderful time

Amy