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Metalworker Chris Darway crafts meticulously engineered jewelry and constructions. The artist even designs some of his own tools. Growing up with the car culture of New Jersey in the 1950's and 1960's, he was always fascinated by the inner workings of machines. His father was a mechanical engineer and his grandfather, whose tools he still uses, was a machinist.
Darway studied industrial design at the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA) but ended up in metals, where the focus was on small-scale works of jewelry.
The influence of his teachers, including Olaf Skoogfors and Bill Dailey, is present in the spare grace of his current forms. Using primarily matte-surfaced sterling silver, stainless steel and occasionally gold, Darway casts and fabricates carefully designed elements. In his necklaces and, bracelets, rings and earrings, he often combines his metal components with industrial materials such as rubber gaskets, aircraft tubing and even Velcro. His use of new materials gives his work a decidedly graphic look, often downright sexy in its minimalism. For Darway,everything matters. Nothing is extraneous.
"I try to see the reason for each little part," he says. Each piece is designed to suit its role, like the tiny catch mechanisms that are the "fun part" for Darway
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