Black Magic Necklace

Black Magic Necklace is the latest addition to the Corning Museum’s growing collection of contemporary jewelry using glass. In this piece, the jeweler Biba Schutz joined a series of asymmetrical oxidized silver links into a chain. Five of the larger links contain elements made of flameworked opaque black glass, which was blown, deflated, and manipulated into unique and irregular shapes, some of which have rough cut edges. Since 1986, Schutz has established her practice as a self-taught studio jeweler, working primarily with malleable metals, such as silver, bronze, and copper. As a student, she studied design and printmaking. Schutz was introduced to glass in the 1970s, and she was mesmerized by the material’s ability to retain fluid shapes. While working to establish her own style as a jeweler, she explored ways of embracing glass in her work. In 2012, glass began to appear in her designs. Schutz’s jewelry possesses an organic quality, in which texture, line, and positive and negative spaces morph into one another. The artist explains that, in her work, one is meant to experience “mystery, memory, and a place to hide and travel.” During her March 2014 artist residency at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, Schutz explored flameworking techniques. It was during this residency that the glass elements for Black Magic Necklace were created. Signed: “Biba Schutz 2014,” engraved on metal. For more information on glass in contemporary jewelry, see Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Cornelie Holzach, and Jutta-Annette Page, GlassWear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry, Stuttgart, Germany: Arnoldsche in collaboration with the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, and the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, 2007. For more on contemporary jewelry, see Cindy Strauss, Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Stuttgart, Germany: Arnoldsche Art Publishers in association with the museum, 2007.