Artist Transforms Junk Metal Into Tentacled Bracelets, Nautical Pendants

Nannette Foster. Kayla Desroches / KMXT

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

On the First Friday Art Walk this week, the Alutiiq Museum will feature a local artist who uses the Kodiak environment as inspiration for crafting jewelry.

One of Nannette Foster’s most recent items is an octopus pendant hanging from a chain and clinging onto green beach glass. Another is a cuff bracelet where tentacles appear to burst from distressed brass.

Both pieces are part of Foster’s Kodiak-themed Be Wild collection. She says she crafts the jewelry out of things she finds on beaches, like junk metal.

“Even though there are beautiful greens, there are also just like blah brown things, so I happen to know what it’ll look like after

I clean it up, so I’ll clean it up and it’ll look bright again. I can do what’s called annealing which is heating it to the point where it’s flexible and then I can actually imprint designs and change the shape and things like that.”

Foster says she’s trying to work more with silver and copper. She says she includes those metals – and focuses on her Cherokee roots – in her Sedona collection.

Design by Nannette Foster. Photo courtesy of Nannette Foster

“And in there you’re gonna see things with maybe a little more of a southwestern feel. Some feathers. Almost what you would think of as being kind of typical traditional looks, but with a modern twist when it comes to Native American craftsmanship.”

Foster says she’s gotten a lot of support from people in town, but is thinking about marketing her jewelry nationally too.

The Alutiiq Museum will display her art on Friday between 5 and 7 p.m.

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