Crinoid Fossil & Vintage Coral - Open Heart Feather Star Necklace

Description: This necklace was hand made with deep love and attention. This piece holds the energy of millions of years of oceanic history and the hundreds of focused hours that it took to craft this striking piece. This art is part of a collection and can be worn alone or with its one of a kind counterparts. This unique one of a kind necklace is 20.5" from the far reach of the clasp to the far edge of its ring, and weighs 3 ounces. The antique coral discs highlight the dark fossils. They are unique in the same way the fossils are: in coloration, thickness, and character. Many reveal their origin by strange crannies and dark or light areas. The necklace is finished with decoratively stamped, sterling-silver bead cones; twisted sterling wire; and a sterling silver clasp, on all of which the patina of age has been preserved. More about the specific details of this piece: The Open Heart Feather Star Necklace is composed of 146 crinoids. Although the two sides are identical in length, there are 52 individual crinoids on one side and 55 on the other. These uneven numbers are due to some very large segments, 10 in all. These rare, fat sections were the hardest to drill and are found in this unique piece, according to their diameter, all along the graduated lengths of both sides. There are 39 crinoids between the 26 discs of the artificially dyed, antique coral. Keren made the necklace in late March 2015. Keren put two fossils between 16 of the coral discs, and single crinoids also known as feather stars, between the first four discs on one side and the first three on the other, due to the thickness of the crinoids. Close to center front, she utilized single fossils between 7 of the discs in order to achieve a smooth hanging curve. Each fossil is unique. Twenty-nine are adorned with a row of tiny bumps around their circumferences, indicating they may have been part of the ancient creature’s stems. The artist who created this one of a kind masterpiece: Keren Wells (1946-2019) was born and raised in downtown Ithaca, NY. In 1974, she and her Standard Poodles began living on the western shore of Cayuga Lake. She was there for nearly 50 years. One day soon after she moved in, she was on the little, shale beach next to her dock and noticed small, perfectly round stones among the broken bits of shale—not many, but some. She began collecting them, just for fun. A few miles south of her home stood New York’s Paleontological Research Institution. Ms. Wells took her jar of minute and intriguing objects there for information. She learned they were the segments of a sea creature called a crinoid, also known as a sea lily, feather star, or comutulid. Apparently, millions of years ago when Cayuga Lake was part of the North American continent’s salt-water sea system, these creatures lived offshore from her home. I say this because Ms. Wells was adept at finding the small crinoidea and never found them anywhere on the lake except along the shore close to her beach. The crinoid fossils she found were from creatures who lived in Cayuga Lake 450-million years ago. Ms. Wells experimented with how to use crinoidea for art and discovered she could make them into beads for necklaces. She found that a hand-powered pump drill gave her control of the pressure so that she could create tiny holes in the relatively softer centers of the crinoidea. Although it was a better drilling method than a power drill, she once told me that she broke about 9 out of 10 of the smallest crinoidea (fewer of the larger sizes) and many drill bits. In making the necklaces shown here, Ms. Wells was exacting on achieving a smooth arrangement of the crinoidea she strung together. To that end, she measured and separated her drilled specimens. She used a professional, tempered-steel, fractional-size, drill gauge to organize her collection into a range of 29 diameters from 0.062 to 0.406 inches. Each size had its own small glass bottle with its diameter written on the lid. Ms. Wells used tough silk beading cord to string these heavy disks together. She strung some of her earlier necklaces with spontaneity. Later, they were strung with a schema she developed through sketches beforehand. Some were interspersed with glass beads, turquoise, antique coral, or fresh-water pearls. The lengths of her necklaces varied considerably from chokers, to princess, matinee, and opera lengths. Most of her designs employ graduated sizes with the largest crinoidea in the center, with each subsequent piece getting smaller as they progress toward the bail. Many of her matinee necklaces can be layered together.

Price: 998 USD

Location: Ithaca, New York

End Time: 2024-09-29T19:50:11.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD