Barlow Auction to Help S.D. School
By Linda Conner Lambeck, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
Jan. 10–REDDING — Blowtorches, vices and mandrels are not generally associated with Joel Barlow High School.
But, really, it is the best way to bend sterling silver, according to Joe Bigelow, 15, a sophomore from Easton who attends the regional high school.
And that blue, plastic water bottle label Allee Beatty, 17, a Redding junior, is shredding mercilessly into confetti with a pair of sheers is not without purpose.
Mixed with the proper amount of clear resin and epoxy, it will settle nicely into the well of a sterling tree-and-earth pendant that Beatty hopes will bring a pretty penny at the first Joel Barlow Jewelry Auction.
The auction, featuring handcrafted work by students in Lee Skalkos’ jewelry and metal-smithing courses, will benefit the art department of the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, S.D.
The auction will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in the Easton Library community room with a preview, music and metalsmithing demonstrations. A $5 admission fee is suggested.
Skalkos, a professional metal-smith as well as an art teacher, believes high school art courses in jewelry making and metal-smithing are fairly uncommon.
They didn’t exist when she went to Barlow.
The aim is to give students a working knowledge of the jewelry-making processes.
“We hand fabricate all pieces we make from scratch. We don’t do any bead stringing. They actually cut and hammer sheet metal,” she said.
It was more challenging than Shannon Foley, 16, a junior, thought it would be.
“I learned how much work goes into jewelry,” said Foley, who soldered a silver-plated spoon and fork handle to form a bracelet. “It took me forever. The silver did not want to bend.”
Bigelow, working with a partner and using an acetylene torch to shape and texture his metal, contributed a necklace to the auction. Another group made matching earrings.
Other pieces to be auctioned include a 20-inch sterling silver loop chain, a double flower sterling pendant with natural turquoise, and a beachstone bracelet set in bezels that would probably go for $450 in a Maine boutique.
Skalkos, who is used to working in brass and cooper, said her classes got a $1,400 grant from the Redding and Easton Learning Foundation that allowed them to indulge in some sterling silver materials, as well as a rolling mill.
Normally, students get to keep jewelry they create. This semester they are donating pieces for the auction.
Danielle Riccio, 16, of Easton, said it will be hard to part with the sterling flower pendants she was painstakingly filling with colored resins.
“I really like the color I made it,” she said.
Skalkos said the idea for the auction came about after she saw a special on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation on television. She contacted Leah Peterson, the art teacher at the high school there, and struck up a pen-pal arrangement between their classes.
“They really are lacking in funds. Proceeds will be used to buy them art supplies and mail them directly to them,” said Skalkos.
Peterson said she appreciates the effort. She said the reservation is about two hours from anywhere.
“You can’t buy anything around here. We pretty much get everything online,” she said.
No one, she added, has ever raised money for them through a student-run auction.
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