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events. In the late 1980s, Kris Eberhard discovered acrylic interference colors. As with the scales of butterflies, this type of paint has no true pigment in it, but through optical interference produces iridescent colors. An elusive or effervescent color, also seen in weathered glass, it changes with the viewer's angle. Her experiments showed that a flat canvas could not yield such colors, but a curved, dimensional surface would "exploit the shining, shifting quality of the paint," Eberhard states. "At some point, I brushed a stroke of the paint over a scrap of leather from some past project. The fine grain of the leather, combined with the brilliance of the paint, produced a rich scintillating surface." Thus the foundations were laid for her illuminated leather jewelry of butterflies, tropical fishes and plant leaves, which so beautifully evoke their natural essence. However, serendipity in art is not achieved easily; new technology sprouted so vigorously only because of the fertile base provided by Eberhard's background. Several generations of amateur naturalists in her family helped shape her focus on nature. A native of Utah and from a Mormon pioneer family (although she and her rebel father left the Church), Eberhard went to the University of Utah, where she underwent vigorous and disciplined training in figurative anatomy and life drawing. Life drawing in the nude caused tension between the University and the community-the male models were required to wear G-strings and the female models had to keep their knees together. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she later got a teaching credential and taught middle school art. Then she moved to New Mexico and taught art, cooking and sewing for adolescents in a psychiatric hospital. Her classes were always in occupational craft studios, where she was able to watch men tooling leather. In the early 1970s, she learned leather carving. At that time, New Mexico was full of countercultural events and an interesting place to live but difficult economically; eventually Eberhard moved to Prescott, Arizona. In the mountains of north central Arizona and some ninety miles fiom Phoenix, this picturesque town has grown quickly, drawing many retirees from other states (many of whom have had to work again, since the stock market crash). Prescott has many artists but it is not as competitive as her former state for pickup jobs. She works each day part-time at Bead It, a well-known bead store and its furnishings gallery on historic Whiskey Row in the center of town. For many in the

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Above, clockwise from top: LEATHER BUTTERFLY AND MOTH BROOCHES, starting with the Monarch (Donous plexlppus, 12.5 centimeters wingspan), Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus gloucus, 11.5 centimeters wingspan), the Madagascar Sunset Moth (Chrysirlda madagascoriensis, 12.6 centimeters wingspan), the Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho meneftus, 11,5 centimeters wingspan) and a South American Swallowtail (Marpesia lole, 13.5 centimeters wingspan). The wings are assembled first, with the more compact ones as a single, folded piece.Those with long tails are two pieces. They are usually reinforced with strips of leather, to give the wings more dimensionality. The body, of Polar fleece, isattached on top: the color pafferns afe applied with pigment pens. Eyes are formed by knotting leather cording: the brass wire for the antenna istied into the leather of the eyes, resulting in a strong construction. Most of lhese brooches are made slightly larger than life-size. Opposite page: LEATHER FERN NECKLACE AND MADAGASCAR MOTH, with the former on wire-wrapped leather, so that the lariat type necklace will hold its shape.This moth isactive in the day and does not have the usual feathery antenna of moths.The combination of the lyrical fern necklace and moth brooch Isboth visually stunning and aesthetically pleasing. Necklace is In the collection of Stephonle Morris, Photographs by Robert K. LiutOrnamenf.t
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visual arts community, the bead store serves almost as a meeting place. Although Eberhard regards herself as highiy creative, she realizes that nature is so much more creative than what she can conjure. All she has to do is reproduce nature-of course, this is a simplification, as her art is no mere copy of animals and plants, but the rendition of them, more a challenge to evoke their essential selves. Her art training both honed her observational skills and gave her the fundamentals to marry this new paint to her techniques. She works with leather that is bark- or oak-tanned, using specifically lining leather, usually from sheep (skiver), sometimes pigs or from cattle. Such leather dries hard and stiff; and when worked wet, it will retain shape. Leather fiom different parts of the animal's body does not react in the same way; for instance, hide from near the spine is more resistant to shaping. Most garment leather, which is chrome-tanned, will not retain shape. The veins of the butterflies and leaves are done with a woodburner, worked only from the front. She learned to use the woodburner when teaching woodshop at youth centers. When the leather is burned, it shortens, resulting in the smooth front of the leather becoming convex, while the back is concave. Eberhard starts by cutting the

leather, then burning in the lines, after which it is cut out to shape. This leather is soaked in hot water, let dry to leatherhard (like in working clay). The previously made lines are not affected by soaking. The burnt part stays low, while the leather itself puffs out, resulting in more surface articulation. She manipulates the slightly damp leather with her fingers, which stretch and pull the leather to the desired form. The shaped leather is propped for drying. When dry, it is painted with brushes, not airbrushed. She achieves her subtlety by painting the same surface ten to twelve times with different colors or glazes of the water-soluble acrylic paint. She sometimes adds strips of leather to the back for reinforcement. Insects do not attack her leather jewelry as there is always a residue of formaldehyde from the curing process. Her leather techniques took ten years of exploration to develop. While Eberhard makes leather jewelry in the form of fish and plants, butterflies and moths are a prominent part of her work, done as pendants, brooches and earrings. She consciously does not make flowers, because so many others choose-this subject. Over the years she has accumulated a library of field guides and coffee table books on these insects. For any one species that she works with, she will cross reference four to five books. She reads her butterfly

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POWDER-BLUE SURGEON FISH AND COPPER-BANDED BUTTERFLY FISH BROOCHES. 8.9 centimeters long each and fully formed on each side. These depict tropical marine reef fishes.

books before she goes to sleep; Eberhard reveals that this is part of her daily "travel" to exotic locales around the world while researching imagery for her illuminated leather jewelry-like a form of aesthetic armchair travel. Currently, she is working on an order of dozens of pieces for the Desert Garden outside Phoenix, where they have a butterfly pavilion each year. The first time she was in such a butterfly enclosure was in 1995, in conjunction with the exhibit, Beauty and Biology. Butterflies and Moths in Art and Science, when a butterfly pin and a painting of hers were included in this show at the Bell Museum of Natural History, on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Besides exhibitions like this and at the Los Angeles Zoo, Eberhard had sold her art through the American Craft Council Minneapolis venue, various juried shows in New Mexico, the Celebration of Crafts Women in San Francisco, and other craft shows. But after hurting her back and being unable to work for six months, she now only sells wholesale to gift and leather shops and small galleries on both coasts. She avoids the shops of zoos or natural history museums, since these markets prefer inexpensive imports. Her most interesting commission occurred about three years ago, over a two-year span, when a Florida psychotherapist

bought a pair of Eberhard's earrings in Oregon and asked the store owner if she could have Eberhard's telephone number. As a consequence, before each of the therapist's trips, she was contacted by the secretary in advance of when the woman and her husband planned to travel to some locale in the world, in connection with the couple's humanitarian relief work. Each of the ten commissioned sets of butterflies and moths represented a different geographic location and were varied in shape and color. They consisted of brooches with matching earrings, with the brooch being worn on a neck ring. She was not adverse to the attention that such striking jewelry drew, wherever she was on her travels. In this instance, Eberhard's creations were able to travel where she only could through her books and imagination. Kris Eberhard works to raise people's consciousness through her jewelry, because so many are not aware of their surroundings. Because her jewelry consists of portraitures of the natural world, she hopes to have those who encounter it to think of the consequences on the environment. When she exhibited years ago in Minneapolis, a woman commented that she does honor to the animals and plants she portrays. That praise and the evocative beauty of her jewelry honor all who care about our planet and its endangered inhabitants. ;,

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TITLE: Kris Eberhard: Illuminated Leather Jeweler SOURCE: Ornament 27 no3 Spr 2004 WN: 0410801313005 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.

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