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 Professional PMC:
Fire Spitter
by Bridgette L. Rallo
Layers of Detail Add Richness and Context to Ethnic Design
 To most people, the word ethnic signals something unique to a specific culture, like “thousand-year-old” tea eggs are to China or dreadlocks to Jamaica. But in the language of jewelry, “ethnic” is synonymous with detail.
True ethnic jewelry is layered with symbolism and each detail is part of the story of a people told in gold, silver, beads and organic components. Not surprisingly, ethnic design is a veritable “gold mine” of inspiration and this is especially true for art jewelers. Some of the most widely used design elements in the jewelry world have strong ethnic overtones, including granulation, spirals, shells, some color combinations, tribal masks, turquoise, trade beads and “miracle” charms (milagros).
Sadly, as our world shrinks and technology grows, once distinct cultures are blending into each other and beginning to lose their characteristic identities. There are few places in this world that escape the effects of mass marketing. So, in praise of human diversity, I’ve decided to open the new year with a gorgeous ethnic design of West African origin. The “Fire Spitter,” also called “Wodeh,” is a composite animal god beloved of the Senoufu tribe of Mali. He is traditionally part crocodile, part warthog and part antelope, and is said to ward off evil and protect anyone who honors his image.
In this lesson, you will learn to focus on the details -- small scale ornamentation, component selection, patination, burnishing -- so that your finished piece will have a harmonious, mellow look that pays tribute both to your skills as a jeweler and to the culture whose artists still revere this imaginative motif.
Notes:
My “Fire Spitter” design includes old African trade beads but you don’t actually have to use antique beads in order to complete a version of this piece. Real trade beads can be expensive and there are lots of good reproductions out there in the bead market. Bead Babe sells a beauty: RD-093. Alternatively, you can go to Bead Babe’s glass bead closeout page and select something that looks ethnic from their terrific selection of modern glass beads. There really is a lot to choose from on that page.
I’ve used three 24 KT gold casting grains for the Fire Spitter. Gold casting grains are also expensive, averaging about $20 per grain. It’s perfectly acceptable to use silver grains instead, which you can make out of scrap PMC.
The long chain segments in the design are attached to the pendant with18 KT gold-filled rings -- again, these are expensive compared to silver and many supply houses only sell them in multiples. Feel free to use silver rings if gold is a strain on your budget; the end product will still look wonderful because the gold is just an accent and not integral to the design.
I decided to bezel set my dichroic cab into its drop but you don’t have to if you’d rather not. You can fire it in place – just construct your drop so that it looks similar to the one in the photos. Remember, though, that glass takes longer to fire and must cool in the kiln to prevent clouding.
Finally, the rubber stamp I chose as my inspiration for this piece comes from Stamp Francisco, a marvelous rubber stamp company from Camas, Washington. This little gem of a company is a great resource for anyone interested in ethnic design;  they sell literally hundreds of interesting stamps that reproduce well in PMC.
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