Outback Memories
The 2012 MJSA Online Design Challenge
By Tina Wojtkielo Snyder
Click on the links below to see each month’s featured redesign:
January 2012 | February 2012 | March 2012 | April 2012 | May 2012
A group of treasured gemstones inherited from a close relative is at the heart of this year’s MJSA Online Design Challenge. For the third consecutive year, we’re hosting this online-only project, a favorite among our readers and website visitors. Last year, we asked eight designers to create a custom bridal suite around a black diamond and a unique couple. The winning entry, by Charlie Herner of Green Lake Jewelry Works in Seattle, was featured in the December 2011 issue of MJSA Journal. (You can still see all of the designs here.)
This year, we’ve centered the Design Challenge around a trio of inherited chrysoprase (supplied by Robert Bentley Co., photo courtesy of AGTA) with sentimental value to the owner. We’ve supplied nine designers with a fictional scenario, presented here, about a client who wants to use these special gemstones in a meaningful piece of jewelry reminiscent of the aunt who passed them down to her.
Every month from January through September, we’ll feature the creations of one of our participating designers. Then, in October, it will be up to you to vote for your favorite jewelry design, with the winning designer being announced in December.
As you read the 2012 scenario, "Outback Memories," think about how you would handle the challenge—then check in here throughout the year to see how our participating designers did it.
The 2012 Design Challenge: Outback Memories
When Tess Rogers’ aunt, Chloe Carter, lost her battle with breast cancer at age 62, Tess was devastated. Tess had always looked up to Chloe. Considering the large age gap between Tess’s mom (the eldest child) and her aunt (the youngest of five), the two were more like cousins; there was only 10 years’ difference between them. They saw each other at least once a week—for shopping, movie night, dining out. Generally, following any excursion, they would stop at one or the other’s house for tea and a knitting session—a hobby they shared.
The biggest difference between them was the lifestyles they had chosen: Chloe, a free spirit who couldn’t bear being tied down, never married or had any children. Tess, on the other hand, married at the young age of 20 and had two sons soon after. Her boys, Jacob, 32, and Jordan, 30, left home years ago, after which she spent even more of her free time with Chloe. The two were working together on knitting a blanket for Tess’s daughter-in-law, who was expecting her first baby at the time of Chloe’s passing.
In addition to sharing a love of transforming colorful yarn into blankets, sweaters, hats, and scarves, Tess and Chloe shared a passion for travel. For the past eight years, Tess had accompanied Chloe on her biennial globe-trekking trips. They’d been to Madrid, the Greek island of Santorini, London, and, most recently, Australia.
Their journey down under—the last trip they took together before Chloe’s grave diagnosis—was Tess’s favorite. The city of Sydney enchanted her, especially the natural beauty of the Royal Botanic Gardens and the glow of the Opera House at night. The stunning view from their hotel window in Sydney was later matched by the one from their tent in the outback, where they spent three days camping, exploring, and counting kangaroos.
It was during one of their excursions in Australia that Chloe purchased a chunk of rough Australian chrysoprase as a souvenir from the trip. She loved the green color of the gemstone and planned to have it cut in the U.S. Eventually, she would have a jewelry piece made with the resulting gemstones that reminded her of the trip.
Just before she died, Chloe told Tess that she wanted her to have the three stones the gem cutter had made from the rough chrysoprase. "Have something beautiful made for yourself with these gems," she said to Tess, leaving $10,000 in her will set aside for the sole purpose of "Tess commissioning a piece of jewelry for herself using the three chrysoprase."
Your mission is to design a piece of jewelry for Tess using these three chrysoprase and any other materials you see fit. The cost of materials and labor cannot exceed the budget of $10,000.