"Double Ball Bead with Greek Gold Finish"

Nancy Worden

"In all of my jewelry pieces, I strive for beauty and comfort. When a woman wears my work, I want it to say, "I'm beautiful, smart, and I won't be ignored." I start with what is physically comfortable to wear and add American artifacts: typewriter balls, hair curlers, and ball chain are carefully transformed to say ancient, valuable and unique."

Nancy Worden's jewelry is an exploration of materials from modern American culture intertwined with an intensive study of the history of jewelry design from around the world. Her work is inspired by cultural observations and the challenges of everyday life.

Found objects are first selected for their forms and cultural associations. After assembly, they are painted with metallic paint and placed in an electroforming bath for 24 hours to create a hard copper shell that consolidates and ages the forms. The final modified forms are finished with patinas and precious metal foils.

Nancy Worden began making jewelry in high school and majored in art at Central Washington University. After finishing her MFA from the University of Georgia, she worked in manufacturing for five years where she honed her skills as a bench jeweler. In 1995, with funds from a commission for the City of Seattle, she taught herself to electroform and has been experimenting with it ever since.