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CYNTHIA TOOPS & DAN ADAMS – LIFE LEFT DANGLING NECKPIECE

$10,380.00

Out of stock

“Life Left Dangling”

The “Covid Year” has radically changed many lives, including ours.  When we were invited to participate in the show, we decided to make a chatelaine to allow us to focus on the many different aspects of our new reality.  Each of the four component pieces can be worn separately or together.

More than a year ago, Dan began wearing surgical masks 8 hours everyday at work in the laboratory.  At that same time I started making cloth masks for us and our friends who didn’t sew – experimenting with different fabrics and shapes to improve “breathability”.  I hand sewed each one (no sewing machine and I made at least 50!). The side effect is my sewing skills have improved a lot.  This all inspired our first element, the “Mask”.

I decided the pendant needed to have a flip down covering so my mosaic person can breathe.  I wanted it to also be purposeful so the locket portion contains a mask repair kit – with elastic, a metal strip, needle, thread and pin cushion.

The next element was the piggy bank, “Reserve”.  Like most people, the financial impact of Covid-19 was great and we were lucky to have savings to get us through tough times.  Nancy Bonnema, the silversmith who worked on the piece made a dangling piggy bank with a “gold” coin.  The bank is hollow though no American coin fits through the slot.

A tough issue for us all this last year was social distancing.  Having to see friends remotely, I learned how to Zoom, developing another new skill despite my technical incompetence.  The “6-foot Rule” commemorates this experience by including a functioning tape measure (6 feet!) and a mosaic of these virtual get togethers.

Inside our last piece, “The Scrapbook”, a wood and steel box made by my husband, Dan Adams, is a hand bound book with images of our pandemic year – the protests in Seattle, jewelry and crafts made during these many months alone, puzzles, a November road trip, walking around the neighborhood, gardening and a portrait with our masks on.  It also includes  a reference to my other way of dealing with the solitude and social distancing – writing postcards, letters and emails.  Since April 2020 I have contacted at least 10 friends each week.

I also want to point out the many beads on the necklace that reference the virus and the mosaic clasp which includes two syringes formed as a victory symbol, surrounded by floating virus elements.  These floating viruses are themselves transformed in the mosaic from which the dangles are suspended into the survivor’s necklace.

-Cynthia Toops and Dan Adams

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