“The first time I touched metal as an art medium, it clicked. It was one of those experiences where you touch something new, but feel like you already knew all about it from before,” says San Gabriel resident Chloe Kono, creator of whimsical artisan jewelry under the banner, or should we say circus big-top, of Chloeography.
Of her light-hearted brand name, she says, “I wanted to keep it a little bit open, not just restricted to one medium. I like to dance a little bit, so ‘Chloeography’ could cover that, too.”
Kono says she discovered the eternal mystery and magic of metal while a student at Cal State Long Beach. She had enrolled to study drawing and painting but soon became a Metal Major.
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
“I’m a petite person,” she says, “so I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of me working on the biggest thing in blacksmithing class. There’s a kind of an interesting conflict there.”
Although her natal elements are Air or Water, depending upon which zodiac you consult, Kono calls her medium “very legit.”
Since 1500 BCE or so when the Hittites (residents of modern-day Turkey) first began to work iron with fire and tools, metal has telegraphed power, durability, substance, and status. Crowns, torques, weapons, rings and sacred objects are among the oldest in the world’s museum collections.
Metal possesses “material resistance,” an ability to resist deformation. But metal is no stiff. Artisans have long prized the precious metals for their flexibility and versatility as well as for their toughness, as in their ability to be drawn into fine threads (ductility) and to be hammered into thin sheets, as in gold leaf (malleability). Kono works primarily in sterling, but high-karat gold is soft enough to bend with your bare hands.
And yes, she does take commissions for gold designs.
What’s most striking about Kono’s creations is her mirthful refusal to be intimidated by the medium and the status-bound expectations that traditionally accompany it.
She toyed with working in sculpture but said, “It came to me a bit later that I am supposed to be doing jewelry because jewelry is more interesting. A sculpture sits in someone’s home or their garden. So maybe the owner sees it often, and other people really don’t have much contact with that object. But a person’s jewelry is out in the world every day. People see it, react to it, and it might even start a conversation, a connection, or begin a friendship. I love to know that my jewelry is having good times and going out on adventures with the wearer.”
While we chatted at this past weekend’s Pasadena Artazan Show (mark your calendar for the next one, May 3 – 4, 2025), we asked about what appeared to be an intriguing abstract design on the inside of her slender right forearm.
“These are my hammerheads, from the hammers I use, taken from an aerial view,” she explains. Her motto: “Bringing out your best smile, one hammer blow at a time.”
On the opposite forearm, a dancing cat reveals the artist’s fondness for felines: Chloe volunteers with www.lifelineforpets.org.
Perhaps descended from Thor, Pollyanne (John Henry’s “little woman,” as the song goes), Maxwell of Silver Hammer fame, and Stanley Kirk Burrell (M.C. Hammer to you and me), this fun-sized artist is all about fun itself.
She calls the innocence of childhood evoked in her work “fearless.” Of kids, she says, “Ignorance is bliss, before they know more about the danger and darkness around them. They still have perfect knees. They can jump from high places, and everything’s fine. We say knowledge is power, but knowledge can also take away power, too.”
Kono’s recurrent motif is the circus, explaining, “I might have gone to a circus at a younger age, but my first mind-blown moment was definitely at ‘Alegria’ by Cirque du Soleil when I was a teenager.”
Kono renders gap-toothed clowns, ice cream cones, cotton candy, popcorn, fun house façades and carousel ponies in mixed metals with accents of origami paper and bright semi-precious stones.
She’s currently working her way through the alphabet, creating earrings, brooches, pendants, rings and bracelets for every letter—an acrobat for “A,” the big top for “B,” and so on.
While Kono’s work may not exactly display a dark side, there is an edge of irony beneath the whimsy that steers the work away from being nothing more than a sterling silver sugar rush.
A sassy ghost, part of her seasonal Halloween collection, confronts the viewer with hands-on-hips. A feisty bodybuilder rat hoists a cheese-dumbbell aloft, perhaps in tribute to Gotham’s notorious pizza-stealing rodents. The teardrop-shaped pads of cacti, a favorite motif of Kono’s, form otherwise sweet-seeming post-earrings, perhaps suggesting that love can be prickly.
Her year-round collection also includes many feline-themed pieces, tulips and bunnies.
This November 16 at the Fall 2024 Remainders Maker Market, Kono will offer witty, wearable interpretations of ugly sweaters, Santa stockings, wreaths and candy canes featuring handmade and holiday items by the crafting community. The hours are 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the upstairs Creative Space.
Kono says that she uses her art to get in touch with her soul and “to find happiness again.” Her jewelry-making classes are another way for fellow smithies to follow their bliss.
“If my work can bring people to that place, that’s super-rewarding,” says the artist.
