Fine Art Jewelry by Bill Farr
I asked my Dad — Bill Farr — why, after drawing, painting, photographing, and creating sculpture for so many years, he took up creating fine art jewelry.
“I can sit down and do it,” was the reply.
Fair enough, but if you dig deeper into that statement, you’ll find an underlying philosophy, which my Dad will clearly tell you, “it’s not what you do, it’s how you think about what you do.”
That “thinking” is evident in everything Bill Farr does, and you will find some common threads throughout his life and art…
Because he grew up in the depression years, making creative use of available and “common” materials was a necessity for Bill to create art. Turning those “common and available” materials into high level fine art has been a recurring theme in Bill’s art.
One of Bill’s very first sculptures, for example, consisted of a log (from a fallen cherry tree behind his mother’s house), a boulder, and a hollowed-out egg.
This simple sculptural form is as elegant today as the day it was created many years ago. But what I find particularly interesting about this piece, is that you can see the early elements of what would become themes in Bill’s wearable sculptures — flowing forms in wood, natural stone, silver, and an embellishment.
Creating splendor with common things
Rusted nails, fabrics, photos, plastics, and carved plywood are just a few of the “common” materials Bill has used to create interesting and compelling sculptural works.
In Bill’s vision, just about any material is fair game for inclusion in a work of art….
Rusted nails and peeled plywood create textures in this “hangable sculpture”
Sometimes Bill will build an entire sculpture around an object or an “incident.”
For example, a camera that fell into a stream became permanently encased in a tank of water and used as a sculpture base, and in the following examples, wire spools, and the chromed axle of a Volkswagen Beetle (from a car accident) become integral parts of a piece…
A Volkswagen axle and rusted wire spools form the core of these free-standing pieces
Jewelry Beginnings
Bill got started creating jewelry while teaching art at a junior high school in the early 1950s. Because his position gave him access to a kiln, many of these pieces used clay as an integral material…
- Clay and silver jewelry, early 1950s
Clay and silver jewelry, early 1950s
…but you can clearly see the “roots” of what was to come in the following piece made from ebony and silver…
Ebony and silver, 1950s
Modern Times
“It’s not what you do, it’s how you think about what you do”…and the way Bill Farr “thinks” about his work causes him to take a different approach to jewelry.
Part of that approach was a conscious decision not to use precious gems like diamonds, rubies, or emeralds. The current fine art jewelry work of Bill Farr features exotic woods, silver, pearls, natural and semi precious stones, and of course amazing designs…
The process
It all starts with sketch based on something that intrigues — a photo, stone, or perhaps, just an idea. The sketch, however, isn’t a “plan” and it doesn’t exist for very long. In fact, when I asked my Dad for a sample sketch to show on this site, I was informed that there were none currently in existence. Here’s why (and I found this rather interesting!)…
The sketch is just a starting point — an idea — and at some point in the creation process, the pieces will “outgrow” the sketch and take a direction of their own.
That’s when Bill throws out the sketch so it will no longer influence the outcome of the piece!
By working on the piece and with the materials over a period of time, the ultimate form reveals itself. It is not a process of production, but a process of discovery.
Because of this discovery process, each piece is completely unique, and may take months to complete (Bill usually has 5-6 jewelry projects going at a time).
Many pieces also require the use of special techniques that Bill has developed over the years. You see, shaping wood to flow with elegance, fitting rock to silver while adding embellishments in the form of pearls, textures, even epoxy, are all difficult tasks that aren’t taught in “jewelry school.”
But that is all part of the fun of it, and in those ways, the jewelry of Bill Farr speaks to all of us who are willing to “throw out the sketch” and embark on an life long adventure!
Artistically yours,
Jeff Farr
