Another Wire Legend

Alexander Calder's Jewelry in Wire on Exhibit

If you are in New York, anywhere near the Metropolitan Musuem, between Dec. 9, 2008 and March 1, 2009, you've got to check out the exhibit of Calder wire jewelry.

Alexander Calder is best known for his outdoor sculptures in bright colors, called 'stabiles'. And his kinetic, hanging metal work that he called 'mobiles' - large public art pieces.


But he also created intimate, personal pieces of jewelry for family and friends, from wire and all unique and made by hand. Over his lifetime he created more than 1,800 jewelry pieces, never mass produced, from copper, silver and brass wire. His wife Louisa inspired many pieces he gave to her as gifts, and she turned her bureau into a decorated and mysterious repository of his art gifts of jewelry to her.

He was born July 22, 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. His family was artistic and his creatvity was encouraged. He started making jewelry as a very young boy, and in Paris in 1928 he started making jewelry for the bohemians of Paris and New York.

Calder's use of wire to create the lines of jewelry inspired many other legendary jewelry artists including Lynne Merchant. He created boxes for storing his jewelry, and during the war he allowed friends to sell his jewelry for him, to help support him. Playful yet sophisticated, his jewelry was owned and worn by Georgia O'Keeffe and the wife of Joan Miro, among many others.

He didn't use solder or heat in forming his jewelry, using instead cold connections with rivets and strategically designed wire wrapping techniques. He used found objects, glass and metal, to create his inventive jewelry designs.

To learn more about him and his art there is an Oral History Interview from 1971 at the archive of the Smithsonian Institution, what better way to learn more about this iconic designer than reading his own words. He died November 11, 1976 in New York. The exhibit of his jewelry designs is side by side with a book with new photographs and examples of his drawings and the jewelry owned and worn by his notable patrons, family and other artists.

He created pins called fibulas based from ancient Roman designs, but gave them a modern new twist and an updated look. Even though the jewelry was designed and created beginning in the 1930's, it looks amazingly contemporary and sophisticated even today.

Still desired and highly sought after by collectors and museums, most of his jewelry is owned by descendants of the original recipients of the gifts because they don't easily part with them.

And the originality and creativity of the wirework continues to inspire new work by current jewelry maker artists.