Jewelry as art
By Theresa Freeman/ Daily News Staff
ASHLAND — A Brazilian seed pod revealing round, milky green aventurine crystals lays partially open, as if it just fell from an out-of-sight tree and into the new glass display case at the Public Library.
    Jewelry designer Martha Fletcher has loaned the pod, which dangles on a necklace of a leather strap with a sterling silver clasp, to the library as part of a collection of jewelry and minerals. A new 6-foot-tall glass case, set in the front section of the newly-renovated 66 Front St. building, will have regular displays highlighting local collections and artwork.
“I don’t want to go off the deep end and say I am an artist,” Fletcher, who studied silversmithing in school, said with a laugh. “I sell a lot of work right off my neck.”
    Library Director Paula Bonetti, Friends of the Library President Janet Eames, Cultural Council member Suzanne Meeker and volunteers Marlies Plaggenborg and Lawrence DeJong have been working recently to develop a policy and schedule for sharing collections like Fletcher’s.
    “Eventually it will be on a first-come, first-serve basis,” said DeJong.
    Two-dimensional artwork, such as paintings, will be displayed regularly around the library’s lower level, said DeJong. More three-dimensional work, like Fletcher’s jewelry and DeJong and his wife Pamela’s pottery which was on display last month, will be found upstairs.
    “It would be nice to see some pieces permanently installed in the main room of the library or on some of the main room’s walls,” said DeJong.
    Fletcher has been weaving jewelry out of beads for more than six years using materials to keep her items affordable, like silver, gold fill or vermeil, which is gold over silver.
    A set of earrings on display are clusters of silver antique French beads, which were imported in the 1920s or 1930s for clothing. Fletcher found the beads in the 1980s and held onto them ever since.
    “I’m awash in beads,” said Fletcher, who has lived in town for nearly 20 years
he hopes many of her works have “shaman-istic” qualities, said Fletcher. She uses as many natural materials as possible, such as carnelian, an ancient stone Romans used to use to carve their signature rings.
    “I’m definitely influenced by current styles,” said Fletcher. “But it’s definitely more than sticking beads on a string.”
    Fletcher also often uses Hill Tribe silver, a product that supports the economy of the Karen tribe of Thailand.
    A ceramic engineer focused on modeling human functions, Fletcher is a trained geologist. Her work is shown in the Library with mineral specimens from the collection of her husband, Bob Osborne, also a geologist.
    The Brazilian seed pod was a gift from her daughter Anne Fletcher, 19, who had been studying in the country. Her daughter is working in Brazil now as a street jeweler with “real talent,” Fletcher said.
    Fletcher said she would spend whole evenings with her daughter in the Ashland library while Anne was growing up. As a child, Anne once emptied out her piggy bank to donate the money to the library. The book “Make Way for Ducklings” was purchased with her gift, said Fletcher.
    For more information on Fletcher, visit www.earthlywealth.com. For more events and happenings at the library, visit www.ashlandmass.com/library.
    (Theresa Freeman can be reached at 508-626-3919 or tfreeman@cnc.com.)
