Real
Events
Page 15
MENDOCINO COAST P R O P E R T Y
Volume 24 • Number 6 • Issue 604 • Mendocino Coast’s Own Real Estate Publication • September 17, 2010 to September 30, 2010
Profile of
a Small Business
in Mendocino County
the unique jewelry of Chris and Shani Christenson
Page 2 Real Estate Magazine September 17, 2010 to September 30, 2010
Metal
Body
Art
Passion and Dreams
The Jewelry Art of Chris and Shani Christenson
story By Margi Gomez
The couple first met as schoolmates in local Mendocino
schools. The two were high school sweethearts and have
been in love ever since. They started their jewelry careers
at that point with Shani getting involved in beading
and Chris apprenticing with master goldsmith Wolfgang
Hasselkas, who was based in Mendocino. They soon began
selling earrings and other pieces at various Mendocino
shops, and participating in local craft fairs until their two
children, Connor, now age ten, and Caiden, age four, came
along. ”At one point we attended fifteen fairs per year,”
Shani remembers “We had to slow way down, especially
when Connor started school.”
Right: Chris and Shani Christenson
in their studio, Celtic Creations
Margi Gomez photo.
Below: Front and back of their
reversible necklace, Lady of the Lake.
Shani Christenson photo.
It’s about having a dream. And it’s about having the passion to follow that dream into reality.
Chris and Shani Christenson’s world is a parallel universe,
steeped in myth and tradition. The Mendocino couple
has been working in silver, gold, and gemstones, creating
work that reflects their longtime fascination with ancient
symbolism.
Both Chris and Shani can trace their fascination with jewelry back to childhood, when each used a kind of creative
deconstruction to experiment with metals and jewels. As
a young child, Shani used to take apart jewelry that her
grandfather bought at junk stores and garage sales. “I
used to pry out the gems and beads, organize them into
little boxes, restring necklaces, and just generally hoard
the pretty sparklies.” As a child, Chris was fascinated with
fire, and he spent a great deal of time melting lead pipes
that had been put out for collection on the streets of his
hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. He would then pour
the molten metal into horsetails and other natural objects
to form casts.”
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In 1996, the couple joined the artists’ cooperative,
Northcoast Artists Gallery, in Fort Bragg. Shani says
that being a part of that community organization has
made a huge impact on their business and their work.
“The community support and encouragement, the additional resources available to us through the co-op, and
the consistency of sales through Northcoast all gave us
a big boost.”
In 2003, Chris and Shani took another big step and opened
their Mendocino shop, Celtic Creations, overlooking Big
River Bay from above the Gallery Bookshop on Main
Street. “We wanted a place where people could watch us
work, where someone could come and even participate
in the creation process,” Chris enthuses. “The beauty of
our coast is a constant inspiration and we hope to capture
some of that energy and magic in our art.”
The Christensons have studied jewelry construction with
a number of teachers, most influential of whom was
Heyoka Merrifield. Merrifield, a Native American who
taught jewelry through the Lady of the Lake foundation
in Washington State, was also central to their quest to
On our cover: Chris and Shani took Metal Body Art to the runway on September First Friday in Fort Bragg. Jessica Vanbuskirk models the Amaterasu design. Daniel MacDonald photo.
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Real Estate Magazine September 17, 2010 to September 30, 2010 Page 3
see their work in jewelry as a personal spiritual journey,
using symbolism and ceremony. Chris and Shani do not
consider their creations to be truly finished until they
have an “awakening ceremony,” something they feel
brings energy to the jewelry, and a connection to the
earth for its next owners. “Every piece of our jewelry
touches one special feather”, Chris says. “This also allows
us to let go, to say goodbye to our creation.”
Chris and Shani create rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and now jeweled armor in their Mendocino studio,
often basing their work on ancient symbols such as Celtic
knots. Although they draw from a number of cultures,
including Native American, Egyptian, and Asian traditions, Celtic symbolism is still their main focus. “We have
always been intrigued with Celtic art,” Chris explains.
“The Celtic knot, for example, is a single interwoven
Celtic Creations suffered a major fire that erupted in the Jarvis-Nichols building in
Mendocino on January 8, 2008. Susie Long photo.
Shani working on chainmail. Chris Christenson photo.
Drawing for Amaterasu.
line with no beginning and no end, which symbolizes eternity and the
interweaving of all life. This early decorative and religious art was born
of the traditions of the Celtic people who inhabited Britain and Ireland
for many centuries.”
The couple use a number of classical jewelry techniques, including a glass
enamel technique called champlevé, using a rubber mold, lost wax casting,
and packing ground glass into recessed areas of the metal, usually silver,
torch firing the piece at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, then grinding and
polishing. Another common design used frequently in Chris and Shani’s
artwork is the cameo. They specialize in a specific type of cameo known
as the commesso, which originated in the fifteenth century French court.
“Only the face of the cameo is sculpted from shell, stone, or piano key ivory,
and the design is completed in metals,” Shani says. “A unique feature of
the Christensons’ commessos is that they are finished with a design on the
back, creating a reversible piece of jewelry.”
Chris and Shani have also been teaching others, participating in the
Mendocino Art Center’s Open Studio program as well as offering a number
of jewelry fabrication classes through the Art Center. They offer instruction
in several techniques, including the double-sided technique for which they
have become known, layering metal using a unique cut away soldering
method, and “sandwiching” large stones between silver overlays. Shani
has taught jewelry to high school students during Alternative Education
week, an enrichment program offered in April in Mendocino high schools,
for several years. “We’ve had a number of apprentices over the years, and
we love to share what we have learned,” says Chris. “I would say that
teaching has been one of the most rewarding things we’ve done and gives
us a chance to give back to the world that has given us so much.”
The Christensons’ path has not been without some major challenges. In
January of 2008, the couple was shocked to receive a phone call informing them that the historic Jarvis-Nichols building where their Mendocino
shop is located, at the corner of Main and Kasten streets, was on fire. Chris
rushed to the scene, crossed Big River bridge to see flames and black smoke
billowing from the building.
Although the devastated couple was able to clean and save much of their
jewelry and some crucial customer information, Shani describes the scene
that she saw the following day as “total devastation.” She continues, “The
fire started in a bathroom, and everything was covered with thick, plastic
smelling soot. There was water and retardant foam everywhere. All of the
woodwork, benches, shelving, and display cases were ruined.”
Chris says that the most important thing he was able to take from the fire
was the gratitude that came from the realization of how much worse it
could have been. “Despite the amazing work the Mendocino Volunteer Fire
Department did, we literally almost lost everything. My mom had passed
away a few years earlier, and I kept feeling that her spirit was there protecting us.” Thankfully, with help from the community at large as well as fellow
jewelers, Chris and Shani were able to get back on their feet and get back
to work within a year.
Six months after they
reopened their shop,
though, the Christensons
were hit with another
shocker when Chris,
while coaching his son’s
baseball team, ruptured
a disc and had a piece
of it detach and lodge in
his spinal column, necessitating surgery. “A lot of
our commissioned work
is in wedding rings, and
those kinds of deadlines
have to be met,” recalls
Shani. “Chris was laid
up for almost six months.
We kept a low cot in the
studio, where he was able
to keep working. He never missed a deadline!”
“I would say that these
experiences only strengthened our resolve. Through
our love and passion for
Chris Christenson worked to finish jewelry commissions laying flat on the floor of the studio for several
weeks while recovering from unexpected back surgery
in 2009. Photo provided.
Page 4 Real Estate Magazine September 17, 2010 to September 30, 2010
one another and our work we have overcome
these bumps in the road to follow our dreams,”
says Chris.
It was during that second “shocker” as Chris
was being wheeled in for surgery that he realized that there was a possibility that he may not
wake up again. Of his epiphany, Chris recalls,
“I would be devastated if I had never made the
attempt to follow my dreams.”
For almost twenty years Chris has been dreaming of making exotic, fine art metal clothing and
lingerie, incorporating precious materials like
silver, gold and gemstones. “I had a vision of
strength and beauty, shining in the darkness.
I imagined creating complete ensembles that
would empower the wearer, a kind of magical
armor.”
Brigit’s Armor, shown here with digital embellishments by
Rhonda Napoleon, won an award for Best Armor Jewelry from
Beyond Fantasy Magazine. Chris Christenson photo.
This Celtic Creations Heart Shield Ring has a sterling silver
band with 15K yellow gold, black glass enameled Celtic knots,
and is set with a purple sapphire. The interweaving lines of the
Celtic knots and the shield setting symbolize eternal love and
protection. Hap Sakawa photo.
Chris shares, “We didn’t ever feel like we could
stop making the jewelry that we made our living
on and put an enormous amount of time and
money into making these outfits that we didn’t
have a market for yet.” He adds, “Through the
course of our career, our lives, and taking care of
a family, we just never felt we could take the risk
of dropping everything to pursue our vision.”
With the surgery behind them, Chris and Shani
threw themselves into this new work, and made
a big splash recently at the September First
Friday celebration at Northcoast Artists Gallery,
where they presented an exciting runway fashion show of their new project, Metal Body Art.
The new work is both provocative and exotic,
and glitters with gemstones such as amethyst,
citrine, and garnets, as well as fine silver, and
fired glass enameling. The Christensons have
taken their passion for jewelry construction a
step further, creating wearable art that reflects
the power and the symbolism of ancient world
cultures. Chris offers, “A friend of ours said
that ‘Metal Body Art shines with the passion
of its creators,’ and that rang very true for us.
We have so much passion for what we do and
others can feel this in our work as well.”
“Brigit’s Armor,” the first of these one-of-a-kind
fashions, was created by Chris expressly for
Shani. The piece has won an award for Best
Armor from Beyond Fantasy Magazine. Brigit was
a Celtic goddess of fire, poetry, healing, childbirth, and most appropriately, metalsmithing.
“Brigit was born at dawn, and her fire represents
the spark of life,” Shani’s sister Kelsie Hubik
collaborated with the couple on the construction of this and other Metal Body Art outfits.
Right to left: Melinda Miller-Klopfer as Druantia, Jessica
Vanbuskirk as Amaterasu, Shani Christenson in Brigit’s
Armor, and Samantha Horn in Kegan’s Fire.
Chris Christenson photo.
Another body armor outfit created by the Celtic
Creations studio is called “Kegan’s Fire.” In
Gaelic the name Kegan means “ bright and
shining flame”. This ensemble, symbolizing the
element of fire and the archetypal fire goddess
celebrated by many cultures, features Chatham
rubies, garnets, cubic zirconium, and black suede.
Shani designed a piece called “Druantia,” a
Celtic forest goddess known as “Queen of the
Druids” symbolizing protection, knowledge and
creativity. Druantia is often seen as the eternal,
wise, and knowledgeable mother, the one who
guides the seeker to his/her true path. The outfit
incorporates tourmaline, green quartz, fluorite,
peridot and green suede.
One of the new wearable art pieces presented
in the show at Northcoast Artists is based
on Amaterasu mikami, the Japanese Sun
Goddess whose name means “shining heaven”.
She was so bright and radiant that her parents
sent her up the Celestial Ladder to heaven,
where she has ruled ever since. This outfit was
created with sterling and fine silver, citrine,
ametrine and black suede.
In order to make their dream of magical armor
come true, the Christensons recycled their
scraps of silver, which they had been saving
for twenty years. “We were able to recover
almost five hundred ounces of silver to use in
the outfits,” Shani explains. She estimates that
each outfit represents between three hundred to
four hundred hours of labor to create. “Chris‘s
mantra throughout these long hours has been,
‘People don’t even know!’ referring to the sheer
amount of tedious work needed to create these
wearable works.”
Chris shares, “The majority of our income is
made creating custom wedding rings and we are
usually booked three to four months in advance
on orders. The body suits take between three
hundred and four hundred hours each outfit.
It’s a huge risk to our income to stop taking
orders for a long enough time to create these
outfits. So that is why it was only a dream for
twenty years.”
Enjoy a personal look at the unique jewelry art
of Chris and Shani Christenson by visiting their
shop, Celtic Creations, above Gallery Bookstore
at the corner of Kasten and Main streets in
Mendocino, or by clicking on their jewelry website at www.celticcreations.com, or on their new
website, www.metalbodyart.com. The Metal
Body Art exhibit at Northcoast Artists Gallery,
362 Main Street in Fort Bragg, is through
September 28. For more information, contact Chris and Shani Christenson at the Celtic
Creations studio by phone at 707-937-1223.
Chris and Shani would like to
thank all the wonderful friends
and family who helped them
present their art in such a
unique and exciting way during the fashion show premier
of Metal Body Art, including Jocelyn DeChenne and
Marrinella Brey of Mantra’s
Affirmation for Hair in
Mendocino, makeup artist Liz
Hetherington and Amy Wall from Mendocino Beauty
musicians Sean VanBuskirk and Dan Mellow from
Hanging Chad, and Meaghan Grijalva Davis who
MC’d the show.