Bagley's Heavy Metal featured in new book 'True Colors'

By Rose Hooper

Along with 13 other female artists, this Sylva jewelry designer participated in an unusual journal experiment dubbed "True Colors."

Each woman selected a theme, concentrating on color, and created a journal, which was mailed to the other artists for their contributions.

The women affectionately called Bagley's journal "Heavy Metal."

Bagley converted a turn-of-the-century vintage postcard album into a metallics journal thicker than a New York City phone book.

Choosing gold as her main color theme, Bagley painted the album's front surface gold and bordered the area with a vintage metal lamp shade trim she unearthed in a salvage shop.

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"Dividing the gold into 15 sections, as a nod to our 15 artists, I embedded circular watch repair glass box tops that reveal assorted golden images," Bagley said. "The central image is a chubby infant's face (mine, of course) with a crown atop her head. I'm flanked on my left by my favorite collage angel image holding a golden star.

"Below the angel is the man I like to think of as my muse, and below the muse are the arms of a clock reported the time of 9 o'clock, a time that sounds like my name. Up on the right side, second from the top, is my mother as a young woman, another of my favorite images that I like to keep nearby."

The others artists, impressed by the album's sheer size and elegance, said, "This book evoked majesty."

In making their contributions to the album, the other artists used everything from precious gold leaf to common silver duct tape to answer the call for metallics. All manifestations of metal can be found on its pages: milagros, charms, screens, grommets, plates and even a brass door knocker.

"The inventive use of found objects and lustrous, shimmering effects make the Metallics journal shine,¾ one of the artists said. "You might say it's worth its weight in gold."

For 15 years Bagley's full-time career has been transforming vintage images and words into sterling silver collage jewelry as wearable art. Her artwork has been featured in boutiques, museum shops and magazines across the United States.

When she isn't hammering words into silver or assembling images to paper and metal, she is wading in the river searching for river glass, teaching art workshops across the continent and spending time with her two teenage sons, Robin and Roy, and her springer spaniel, Aspen.

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