Helmich found the head at the Basel Fair in the late 1980s, and it remained in her studio for a decade and a half waiting on a project worthy of its arresting presence. During a difficult passage in her own life, she realized that “it was just the right time to bring her out.” The initial connection to the theme was in the wavy tendrils of Medusa’s serpentine hair, but Helmich soon found resonance in the “tidal wave of emotions” surrounding the story of Poseidon’s betrayal of Athena with Medusa. “In the case of Athena, it caused her to do some very vindictive things to this woman who was once beautiful. I wanted to use it as an example of what can happen to a person throughout their entire being when they’re betrayed.” The head of Medusa gapes, open mouthed, from a fabricated casement of silver and gold. A single pearl dangles below, about where Medusa’s heart would be, a symbol of her now lost purity. When not worn on a chain, the pendant hangs from a silver triton set in a druzy quartz base, evoking Medusa’s lover Poseidon and his ocean kingdom. FIRE One can almost feel the heat emanating from Paula Crevoshay’s Phoenix Rising earrings, twin spessartine suns surrounded by an array of fire opals set in 18k gold. Their palette and mandala-like design reflect the artist’s deep immersion in the aesthetic traditions of India and Thailand, while the title references the fire bird of ancient Greek mythology. What do dragons, marbles, and fly-fishing have in common? These improbable elements all intersect in Paul Robilotti’s twin-dragon objet d’art. The dragons, cast in gold alloy, breathe fire in the form of bright red fly-tying threads. “Fly fishing and fly tying are an integral part of my life,” Robilotti told me. “There is a Zen quality to the art form as I realize it. And yes, I have often incorporated that thread (pun intended) through my work with AJDC.” Each sectioned tail ends in a gleaming triangular citrine. Anchoring the composition is a large, variegated marble by glass artist Rick Davis. FIRE presented a particularly resonant theme for Robilotti. “I was burned out of my Manhattan loft one February many years ago and was left literally homeless and broke,” he says. “Tenacity and little more got me through.” John Iversen takes a more process-oriented approach to the theme with his oxidized-silver Gingko Brooch. “I have to ask myself, ‘What does fire mean for me as an artist, as a jewelry maker, as a designer?’” he says. “Fire is very important for the jewelry maker because of all the soldering, welding, and melting, heat and torches.” Starting with a nature cast of a delicate, fan-shaped ginkgo leaf, Iversen applied his “burned silver” finish, a high-heat process he has been FIRE DETAIL BY JENNIFER RABE-MORIN