I designed this necklace around the idiom “blind as a bat”, with the intention of making this into a statement piece. Bats are my favorite animal, and I enjoy helping to educate those who, themselves, are blind to the good that these creatures do for us. To communicate that bats are indeed not blind, and perhaps it is us who need assistance in seeing, I decided to have this necklace function as a magnifying glass.
At jewelry shows, I displayed the necklace in a way that allowed viewers to interact with the piece. They were able to unfold the wings and use the magnifying glass, which was in the bat’s breast area beneath the wings, to read miniature bat facts that I had set up within the display. The bat facts were included to communicate the benefits of bats, and the need to use of the magnifying glass to read the bat facts was a representation of the blindness that many have as to the benefits of what some have called “rabies infested flying rats”. By educating others through this piece and display, I'm hoping to have contributed, at least slightly, to the understanding, and hopefully appreciation of bats in our world.
I took this piece further when I was introduced and fell in love with saltwater etching — a process that eats away a copper plate, that is not covered in oil marker or laser jet transfer paper, and etching a design into it. Using this method, I created 25 bat pins that I sold at the following jewelry show for $5 a piece, with 100% of what I earned going to the Bat Conservation International. Because of the success that I had with this, I made more pins, stickers, and a brochure that educates those who donate, on how bats benefit us, what bats are experiencing, and a few simple ways that you can help.
