Triple Dash Earrings by Tanya Crane
These signature enamel earrings are fun and bold additions to any wardrobe. They are handmade using enamel over copper with a surgical steel post and sterling catch. Tanya hand-draws the design using a scratch away method called sgraffito. The earrings are fired in a kiln at 1500 degrees, then Tanya adds an additional top layer of enamel that is fired to a sugar coat for added texture and interest. These earrings are extremely easy to wear and are super light.
Tanya Monique Crane describes her art as existing in a liminal space between prejudice and privilege. As a child she experienced a “dual existence,” splitting her time between a white middle-class neighborhood and a predominantly working-class Black neighborhood in South Central LA. This experience has deeply informed her work, with many of her large-scale pieces reflecting on her lived experience with race.
Crane received her MFA in Metalsmithing + Jewelry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her BFA in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Crane is a Professor of the Practice in Metals at the School Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.
Measures 1.5” in diameter.
Enamel over copper, surgical steel post, and sterling silver ear nut.
Additional Info
TANYA CRANE, Featured Artist, 38th Annual Penland Benefit Auction
Tanya Crane is a Southern California native who, after years of exploration, has found a home and community in Providence, Rhode Island where she practices her research and makes her jewelry and sculpture.
Tanya is also a Professor of the Practice of Metals at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and at Tufts University in Massachusetts. She says that through her teaching she uses her interdisciplinary focus in jewelry, craft, sculpture, and performance to influence the next generation of artists, craftspeople, and thinkers.
Tanya's jewelry and sculpture are framed within a dual existence of prejudice and privilege, as she has lived among family in both the rural white suburbs of Los Angeles and the predominately black suburbs of South Central.
Her work embodies many layers of human existence, including history, race, class, and culture.
Tanya first attended Penland as a studio assistant for an enamel workshop taught by Arthur Hash. Years later she came back to teach her own enamel workshop. Most recently, Penland invited her to be an artist mentor for the HBCU (historic black colleges and universities) tour of Penland. "These diverse experiences have cemented Penland as a foundational component to my development as a jeweler and maker," she says.
Film by Jesse Beecher