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Tracks - Cleveland Natural History Museum - December 1990
Jewelry Exhibit features plants and wildlife:
Artist Ruth Morlocke works small, creating jewelry pieces no more than three inches in length. Morlocke has created a variety of fascinating nature-oriented jewelry.
Morlocke's work will appear at Corning Gallery beginning November 11. Subjects featured are raptors, hawks, eagles, raccoons, deer, tree swallows, hummingbirds-and non-native, exotic animals such as the hippopotamus, giraffe and aardvark.
She employs a technique called "lost wax," an ancient process that involves first carving out a sculpture from wax, hollowing it out and then creating an entrance way for gold or silver. The piece is eventually put into a kiln and exposed to a temperature of 1,350 degrees F. The wax vaporizes ("lost wax"). The final product is the casting.
"Many people sell jewelry, but not many manufacture it, from design to finish, actually casting it themselves." Morlocke said.
As a high school student, Ruth was a Future Scientist at the Museum, while attending the Cleveland Institute of Art on scholarship. She later attended Beloit College in Wisconsin on a Natural Science Foundation grant to study biology. She continued, however, to take art classes and have gallery showings.
Morlocke continued creating jewelry while raising a family in Chardon. She is currently a member of the Society of Nature Artists, and works as a professional jewelry designer.
The works featured at Corning Gallery are all for sale. For additional information, call the Museum at 231-4600.
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