ABOUT THE ARTIST

California artist Sandra Enterline began her formal study of art at the Rochester Institute of Technology and later graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and has been nominated for a National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

ABOUT THE WORK

Since graduating in 1983 from the Rhode Island School of Design, Sandra Enterline has been exploring form within the context of wearable, art jewelry. By the mid-nineties, she had more fully developed her approach, avoiding the precision of perfect spheres and cubes, by altering them ever so slightly. Today she concentrates on groupings, placement and surface.

Working with 20 gauge sheet silver, Enterline first drills the sheet to create minute perforations. When the sheet is molded into its form, these tiny holes permit a play of light that imparts a subtle allure. This is particularly true when the light gleams on the 18k lining beneath. “Both the visual and physical weight of the metal is reduced, and the pattern of perforations creates visually arresting designs. Drilling effectively doubles the number of finished surfaces by exposing the interior; it also dramatically alters the play of light by introducing a kinetic element.”*

Esteemed art critic and museum curator, Kenneth Trapp, selected Enterline’s work when acquiring art jewelry for the collection of the Oakland Museum. When he speaks of her pieces he identifies its subtle, sensuous nature.  “I think that Sandra Enterline’s Melon necklace is going to become an iconic object… It is just incredibly erotic. It looks all mechanical, pristine, calculated and predetermined, yet it looks organic.  It looks like a seed from an out-of-Earth organism. The way it hangs, so low, it makes you very much aware of the body.” And truly, she is designing for the body. She understands the nuance of form and its relationship to a woman’s figure. 

PUBLICATIONS

• Metalsmith Magazine, cover and article, Spring 2004
• “1000 Rings” Robert Ebendorf-curator, Lark Books, 2004

COLLECTIONS    

• Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
• Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA
• Wustum Museum, Racine, WI