Liz Sabol’s Cheshire Cat necklace
By Tina Snyder
Following the creation of her Mad Hatter Cuff bracelet—a finalist in the PMC category of the 2016 Saul Bell Design Award Competition—Liz Sabol of Liz Sabol Jewelry Art in Pittsburgh set out to create a second Alice in Wonderland-themed piece, this time drawing inspiration from the Cheshire Cat. “I wanted to make a necklace with a lot of movement, so naturally I thought of the Cheshire Cat, who slinks around and turns invisible then reappears,” she says.
The undulating structure of the cold-enameled Champlevé sterling silver PMC necklace, which curves down the neck and then curls in on itself to result in an asymmetrical form, is reflective of the cat turning invisible. To form the neckpiece, Sabol started by refining her sketches in Adobe Illustrator. She then used an etching laser to burn the designs for the front and back of the necklace into plexiglass, making two molds.