Kefauver Studio & Gallery is featuring the jewelry of three talented artists this summer season: Sally Loughridge, Terry Kovalcik, and the collected works of Bolivian artisans from Salvatierra Imports.
 
Sally Loughridge, South Bristol, is a fine artist, painting in oil and soft pastel. She also creates beautiful necklaces and earrings. She says, “The impetus for creating each piece of jewelry is my response to a natural element, like a meadow or a coastline.  The exciting challenge is how to abstract a natural scene and my emotional resonance with it into a length of artful jewelry.” Will Kefauver, the gallery owner, adds, “The way she puts the materials together makes the beaded necklaces work like a painting.”

Loughridge uses silver, metals, minerals, beads, and found objects to create her pieces. She even names her jewelry, as one would a painting, to share her vision of the scene that inspired it, such as “Meadow Hues,” or “Moon over Maine.”  

Artist Terry Kovalcik, Haledon, NJ, creates jewelry that moves.  His silver earrings, necklaces, and pins catch the light in unexpected and delightful ways.  He is an illustrator and began to create jewelry to make “wearable art,” art that was made of multiple elements that hang, dangle, and swing with the movement of the body.   Kovalcik says, “This gives the piece life and adds an element of whimsy.”  His pieces are named to suggest motion and movement, such as Dancing Dangles, Silver Wave, and Helter Skelter.  

Each of Loughridge’s and Kovalcik’s pieces are one-of-a-kind and individually crafted. 

Kristen Evans and Kathryn Krubsack, co-founders of Salvatierra Imports, brought the art of the women artisans of the Bolivian rainforest to America, including bracelets and necklaces in both gold leaf and natural Spanish cedar.  Some of these pieces represent mermaid scales – a surprising choice considering Bolivia is landlocked!  But mermaid lore pervades Bolivian culture, with tales warning villagers not to heed the calls of the water people living in the river’s caves. Mermaids are found carved on the pulpits of churches as a reminder of the sin of succumbing to earthly temptation.  These warnings find more beautiful expression in the necklaces and bracelets from these artists.