Sarah Wallace's Studio Works
Lamassu Brooch
FlexFoam, Resin, Acrylic, Acrylic Paint
2021
This piece incorporates my Glow Bears with my 3D cameos, and continues to subvert the Christian narrative through re-appropriation of symbols. The two horns are more ram-like than the unicorn horns, alluding to Baphomet or the “Sabbatic Goat,” a half human, half-animal hybrid. The human half is both male and female, and the deity is both good and evil. A deity representing both good and evil expresses that human nature is more complex than the God-versus-Satan oversimplified spectrum of right versus wrong. The horns, ears, and long goat face of Baphomet make up the pentagram, an icon/symbol used in paganism, especially Wicca, for protection. In Christianity, these same symbols represent Satan worship, Islamophobia (the name Baphomet is a bastardized form of “Muhammed”), and anti-Semitism (alluding to the myth that Jews have horns). The acrylic is engraved with flowers: roses (Rosa) mean [I will] protect [you], primrose (Primula vulgaris) means kindness, and holly (Ilex aquifolium) for [I wish you] peace. I incorporate traditional flower meanings into my work to demonstrate the hypocrisy of their popularity during the Victorian Era, yet an estimated 50,000 women were burned at the stake for centuries prior for knowing the same flowers when the Holy Roman Empire declared the “Constitutio Criminalis Carolina” law code stipulating that witchcraft be punished by fire. My work re-appropriates negative Christian symbols originally appropriated from non-Christian peoples and used to control their followers through fear. My work may appear “Satanic” through the lens of toxic Christian Ideology, when without that lens is innocent and fun.
Rainbow Gremlin Bell
Form Resin, acrylic.
2021
Motorcycle lore claims gremlins lurk in the potholes waiting for motorcycles to prey upon. Once they find a motorcycle, they hop a ride and let loose their mischief, causing harm to both bike and rider. Gremlin bells, also known as Guardian Bells, capture the gremlin spirits in the bell's hollow while the clanging drives them insane until they fall back out onto the road. Riders attach the bells to the bike's frame, mirrors, or keys.
My Unicorn Brooch is a 3-dimensional cameo printed in Form resin and riveted to a copper backing. Copper chrysanthemum leaves are dipped in liver of sulfur for a black patina. Through a Christian lens, the black implies darkness and evil, despite the chrysanthemum leaves meaning childhood innocence.
Unicorn Brooch
Form Resin, copper.
2020
My Bicorn Brooch is a 3-dimensional cameo printed in Form resin and tabbed to a brass backing. The Bicorn has two horns alluding to Baphomet or the “Sabbatic Goat,” a half human, half-animal hybrid. Like the traditional cameo, there are flowers surrounding the subject. The flowers here are lobelias which mean malice and malevolence. Through a Christian perspective, the white and "gold" are heavenly and angelic, yet the flowers are a warning.
Bicorn Brooch
Form Resin, brass.
2021
Ouijia Planchette Pendant
Wood, Acrylic, Copper
2021
The Catholic Church has condemned the use of Ouija games because they are a form of divination and are associated with the occult. According to catholic.com, the Church's exorcists' experience "shows that Ouija boards are far from harmless. Some investigating supernatural phenomena from a Catholic perspective have gone so far as to say that 90 percent of their very worst cases involving demonic activity have been linked to the use of the Ouija board." The practice of divination through letter boards goes back to 1200 BCE in China (although the term "ouija" comes from Baltimore, MD, made synonymous through Hasbro). This harmless game centers around the planchette, or heart shaped oculus. The heart shape speaks to me, as it is a symbol for love. I have re-appropriated this symbol back from Christianity's fearful condemnation back to one meaning love, peace, and harmony. I have decorated the planchette with non-christian symbols and icons of love and peace, including the ohm and the Hamsa, pentagrams, laurels and a Wiccan symbol for love. I chose not to mask the wood when laser engraving to allude to the 50,000 "witches" burned by Catholicism's toxic ideology. The planchette may appear as ominous to Christians, yet the meaning is centered around love.
There are three copper bails that keep the layers of wood and acrylic together, allowing the wearer to choose how they want to hang the pendant from the necklace.
Glow Bears Series
FlexFoam
2020, 2019
My Glow Bear series combines the child's teddy bear with a nightlight. The Glow Bears fluoresce under a black light, glow in the dark, and have intense neon pigments. They can be squeezed for comfort just like a teddy bear. The first ones from 2019 are 8 inches tall. In 2020, I reproduced them as rings, brooches, and a bear head pendant on a FlexFoam chain. The chain was a proof of process, with each chain link being molded through the previous link instead of linking each chain post-production.
This stone well pitcher has no legs and cannot stand on its own. Inspired by Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, this well is an impossibility as are Marco Polo's poetic tales of far away cities in Kublai Kahn's vast empire.
The well is part of a narrative. It has somehow appeared in the city and the people, in bewilderment, try to harness or capture it.
Stone Well Pitcher
Zcorp Plaster, Resin
2020
In Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Marco Polo describes the trading city of Euphemia as one filled with storytelling, and how each telling of the story is a new iteration, never the same, to be recognized as a separate thing. Subjects like "battle" and "hidden treasure" come up as often as scabies. Scabies, aka sarcoptic mange, is a parasitic mite that feeds on the blood of mammals. Inspired by the way the Ancient Egyptians' used scarab beetles, the red marble bowl would have been used in Euphemia for rituals. Although it does not seem to be a mite, the bottom shadow is exactly how the mites appear under a microscope.
Scabies bowl
3D Render
2020
Parasite Ring Series Inspired by Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
3D Renders
2020
Tape Worm and Segments
Parasite Ring Series Inspired by
Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
3D Renders
2020
Octopus Light Switch Plate
3D Render
2019
In this light switch plate design challenge, I was inspired by one of Earth's most interesting species. Their limbs are technically not tentacles since their suckers are only on one side of the limb. They have estrogen receptors that could theoretically allow them to identify if a handler is female by touching them. They are considered highly intelligent but their intelligence is very different from intelligence in mammals.
The closest ancestor of humans and octopi is the flat worm.
During the pandemic, we could not make our designs come to realization, so we were challenged to create virtual objects that couldn't exist in our reality. Although this pitcher may seem realistic, there is no way to make the copper spout and handle to attach to the glass carafe as shown.
Stepped Pitcher
3D Render
2020
This copper pierced cuff bracelet has a liver of sulfur patina that has been slightly removed in order to bring attention to the lace texture.
Lace Pierced Cuff
Copper
2019
These textured rings were inspired by the snake* that moved into our basement, shed a huge skin, then moved back outside once spring warmed up his natural environment. I have an irrational fear of snakes but am very pleased with him, despite moving in and not paying rent.
The first ring is cast in fine silver and has a CZ set on its side. The CZ on its side resembles the patterns on a diamondback rattlesnake. The second has a similar texture with hexagonal prisms capped in hexagonal pyramids. These shapes allude to hexagonal crystals but are also an abstraction of the markings of a diamondback rattlesnake.
*His name is Basilisk, or Basil for short (pronounced the British way), because he lives in my garden and keeps the mice population down (therefore keeping the tick population down).
Snake Rings
Tromp L'oeil with CZ cast in fine silver
Tromp L'oeil cast in bronze
2021
These pendant necklaces are slightly abstracted vaginas. They have a stone bead for the clitoris. I call them Vadges of Honor to remind the wearer to be proud of their anatomy/gender/sex when the Patriarchy brings them down for being female.
Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum.
Vadges of Honor
Wood, Stone, Copper, Ribbon, Acrylic
2019
My spouse and I don't wearing our wedding bands. This copper coffin houses our wedding bands and my engagement ring. The coffin reminds us to live every day to the fullest with each other because we don't know how long we have together. The copper will tarnish over time, showing fingerprints and losing its luster. Our relationship, too, is covered in oily fingerprints and may seem lackluster from the outside, but will weather through the storms because we are stronger together.
Memento Mori Ring Reliquary
Copper
2020