Gold spiral pendant and necklace, 1930s. Approximately 25 mm; 1 inch diameter (pendant).
Calder first twisted wire into three-dimensional forms in his wire sculptures of the mid-1920s. Subsequently, he twisted, cut, and hammered wire and gold, silver and brass into jewelry for his friends and patrons. It has been suggested that the delicate and slender forms of some of Calder’s metal constructions of the early 1940s are indebted to his jewelry of the 1930s, which included both simple animal motifs and curvilinear or spiraling abstract forms.
