Eleanor Moty

Eleanor Moty

Tuscon, AZ

My aesthetic is influenced by landscape and architecture as I focus on creating brooches that feature natural stones and crystals with unusual inclusions. I am fascinated by the linear imagery within rutilated and tourmalinated quartz and find that the architectural aspect of quartz stones cut by Tom Munsteiner relate perfectly to my aesthetic. The slashes, grooves, voids and matte surfaces are referenced in the planes of silver that I use to encompass the stone. By masking or covering part of the stone with metal I am able to change its format to integrate the stone with my design. Clear quartz and the angles and planes in silver constructions create perceived variations of white, as in a room’s interior or a wintry landscape. Accents of yellow from 18K or 22K yellow gold, topaz, sapphire, or citrine relate to golden threads of rutile within a rutilated quartz stone, and black Micarta interjects a striking reference to the black lines of tourmaline inclusions in tourmalinated quartz. (Micarta is an industrial material made of resin-impregnated paper or fabric.) I also find inspiration in the artfully cut agates of Dieter Lorenz, and have been attracted to the dynamic landscape imagery within specimens of black slate with inclusions of pyrite crystals.