From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The delicacy and sense of humor that Mike Warner brought to his Wild Bryde design work are both quite extraordinary, and these two pieces are personal favorites that represent the different sides of the spectrum - from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The first piece is a layered and delicate lentil-shaped pendant made from a single bent sheet of brass (gold plated, of course), held together with a bail at the top. Gentle planishing has been used to dome the double-sided oval, creating about a half a centimeter of depth in the piece, beween the two layers.

On the bottom layer lies a more traditional Wild Bryde style scene, with three circling koi fish evoking a Klimt painting. On the top layer, airy openwork circles create a rippling water effect, accented with water lilies and an amethyst bead. It's a truly exquisite piece, and I've only seen it recorded on the secondary market a handful of times. (Luckily, I was able to snap it up for my collection one of those times!) It appears to be one of the most complex production pieces Wild Bryde created, and certainly rises to the level of "sublime" in my opinion.

Now for another kind of wonderful. This brooch features a beautifully textured mama sow feeding her piglets with a smile on her face. The piglets are beautifully detailed and are designed to slot into each other, and they dangle by jump rings from their mother's nipples. I can't help adoring the silly yet accurate rendering, and wait eagerly for it to pop up on the market again. As I've only seen it once, it is possible that it was a one-off piece, in which case I'll have to continue to admire it via the photo.

Wild Bryde and Mike Warner were definitely not afraid to take that one small step from the sublime to the ridiculous, and incorporated everything in between. This is possible because they were incredibly prolific, with thousands of designs issuing from the studio over the years. New ones seem to pop up on the market weekly, making it a fun treasure hunt for me. With this quick post, I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite pieces from the far ends of the spectrum - I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!