Mood swing, 2002 fine silver sterling silver 24k and 18k gold, vitreous enamel 20 x 3 x 1/2" Photo: Kathleen Browne Brow

The images used in this series of jewelry pieces are appropriated from a pulp magazine printed during the 1950s titled secreats. The magazine photos were overly dramatic and stagy, both tragic and unintentionally comic, but somehow they captured the zeitgeist regarding female transgression. These reconfigured images freeze a moment in the daily drama of our lives and, set as jewels, they serve as paeans to the mundane.

By converting these images to enamel decals, I exploit the historical conventions of portrait miniatures, in particular, eighteenth century decal transfer miniatures that, coupled with metal stamping processes, made jewelry affordable to a wider audience Then as now the enameled image serves to provide a democratized view of time and place.

Mood Swing (reverse). 2002 Photo: Kathleen Browne