Harold O'Connor
Jewelry five millennia in the making
Harold O’Connor is a jeweler’s jeweler. Working in Colorado, he’s opened himself up to the topography of the west. The majesty of the mountains, the intimate valleys. And he’s brought those inspirations and visual cues to his work.
Imagine reticulated silver that’s heated and crunched as the earth’s own crust once was, with results that are both random and breathtaking.
With this complex work, Harold also makes tiny granules of silver or 18 karat gold, using an ancient Etruscan technique.
These granules, after their 5,000-year journey, are fused to create a pattern across his crunched surfaces. Trails across a landscape, like distant cattle roaming the wilderness. Or the tiniest droplets of water trickling through boulders.
Brooches that transform into necklaces, afire with spectrolite flashes of green, purple, blue, red. Rings adorned with stones from New Zealand or Bali. These techniques are the foundation of the wondrous, asymmetrical pieces Harold makes.