I have to credit Justin with sourcing today’s designer – perhaps he was doing a bit of online research to find me an early birthday present! Anyway, Margaret de Patta (1903–1964) was an American jewellery designer and is this week’s featured creator.
She initially trained as a painter and sculptor however, when she couldn’t find a wedding ring that she liked, she designed her own! Her aesthetic became heavily influenced by the Bauhaus Movement; in 1941 she studied under László Moholy-Nagy at the School of Design in Chicago, Illinois.
Margaret de Patta worked a lot in sterling silver; creating rings, earrings, brooches and pendants using semi-precious materials such as moss agate, rutilated quartz, onyx, amber and ebony. They’ve been described as wearable art – and I don’t disagree!
I could only source three examples of De Patta’s work currently for sale. A few copies of the accompanying catalogue to the 2012, Space Light Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta exhibition, is available on Amazon. Oakland Museum of California houses the largest collection of her work.
Her papers are held at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution. They were donated in two instalments in 2003 and 2015 by Martha Bielawski, the second wife of Margaret De Patta’s second husband, Eugene Bielawski. Her archive includes correspondence, writings, teaching files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed material, artwork & sketchbooks and photographs.
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