Chelsea Necklace

Deitra Blackwell

Fine silver, sterling silver, enamel

Fourteen years ago, after a forty-year career as a professional musician, Deitra began exploring visual art, specializing in metalsmithing. She enjoys analyzing and employing the elements and stylistic periods of visual arts, just as she had in music. Much of her work focuses on botanical and organic subjects. It provides her with a way to honor the beauty and fragility of the natural world. The variations and imperfections in species of plants and animals can also symbolize or reflect the variations and imperfections in people.

Studies in metalsmithing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have provided Deitra Blackwell a foundation for developing a body of work and establishing her jewelry business. She incorporates color into her work for the energy it can inject, the mood it can create, or the symbolism it can imply. She has explored the use of patinas, enamels, gold leaf, and other traditional and contemporary methods to add unique splashes of color and pattern.

2.5 x 2.63 x .75 inches