Martha Vanderhoop’s stunning jewelry, created in the distinctive, eco-friendly medium of silver metal clay, holds meaning far beyond its beauty. It is imbued with cultural significance, tied to both her Aquinnah Wampanoag and Japanese heritage. Referring to the Vineyard, she says of her unique designs, “I draw inspiration from my beautiful Island home. I love translating its seaweed, sand dunes, and animal life into my jewelry. My work is also influenced by the simple elegance of Japanese aesthetics and my lifelong connection to the ocean.”
Vanderhoop’s father was a sea captain, born in 1921 at the Gay Head Lighthouse, where his father was the first and only Wampanoag principal keeper. “My dad loved his childhood in Gay Head [the former name of Aquinnah]. Even though the town was far more isolated then, there were still tourists who came to see the Lighthouse and clay Cliffs. When he was a child, my father sold handmade pottery from the Cliffs to some of these tourists. As an adult, he became a sea captain, sailing all around the world and serving in the Merchant Marines. After World War II, he met my mother in Japan, where I was born.” When Vanderhoop was 4 years old, the family returned to her father’s homeland.
Vanderhoop’s parents opened Hatmarcha Gifts on the Aquinnah Cliffs in 1974, when she was in college: “Every summer, I came home to help them sell scrimshaw, wampum, clothing, and other gifts. My father loved entertaining customers with tales of his maritime travels and stories of the Island’s past. My mother had always dreamed of opening her own business, and worked tirelessly to make Hatmarcha Gifts a success.” Vanderhoop took over the store after her parents retired, greeting visitors herself every summer.
Vanderhoop always loved jewelry, and first began doing beadwork. But she says, “About 20 years ago, I heard about metal clay, and it sounded fun. I took a couple of classes, and just love the medium.”
Vanderhoop works with nearly 100 percent silver metal clay, which was developed in Japan in the 1990s. This unusual medium begins as a soft, workable substance composed of tiny recycled-metal particles mixed with an organic binder and water, forming a claylike material. Vanderhoop shapes it by hand or uses molds embedded with her designs. After drying, she can carve, sculpt, and sand the clay into her desired forms. The piece is then fired in a kiln. During firing, the organic binder burns away, and the water evaporates, leaving behind a solid metal piece.
Vanderhoop polishes the raised elements, and sometimes darkens the recessed areas. The resulting tactile images call out to be touched. At times, she also uses the ancient Korean technique of keum-boo, in which she fuses high-karat gold onto the silver to create rich contrast and depth. Similarly, she sometimes adds semiprecious stones to introduce color, balance, and individuality to each piece.
Traditional silversmiths use sheet silver
“I fell in love with this medium,” she says. “Working in metal clay allows me to build forms in an intimate and tactile way — shaping, carving, and refining each piece by hand before I fire and transform it into metal. I’m responsible for every little piece of it, not taking a sheet of hard silver and cutting it. I’m creating it from its very base form.”
Silver metal clay has been around for nearly 30 years, but Vanderhoop isn’t sure why it isn’t more popular or well-known. She conjectures, though, that it has to do with the techniques’ differences. Traditional silversmiths use hard sheet silver, which is typically cut into pieces and soldered together. The silver metal clay starts out as moldable and needs to be fired at 1,500° to 1,600° to become hard, which is too hot for sheet metal to withstand. Vanderhoop observes, “If you’re a traditional silversmith, you can’t mix the two techniques together.” The Jewellers Academy has praised the medium for being ecologically sustainable.
Vanderhoop says of the silver metal clay, “I love the hands-on nature of the material. It starts soft and sculptural, and after firing, it becomes solid metal. That transformation is particularly meaningful because it becomes strong and enduring through fire, [which] feels symbolic of resilience and of continuity of us as Wampanoag people, and of the ways our culture and identity are shaped over time.
“Both my Japanese and Wampanoag perspectives naturally find their way into my designs through an attention to nature, balance, and story. From the Japanese aesthetics, I’m drawn to simplicity and asymmetry, and the quiet beauty found in natural forms. From my Wampanoag roots, I carry an awareness of connection to [our] land, story, and ancestral craft.” We see this combination, for instance, in her beach-grass design, which carries the elegance of a Japanese composition while the subject matter is directly connected to Wampanoag coastal areas.
Vanderhoop notes, “I like my pieces to have some kind of meaning. I hope to create small, personal objects that carry quiet significance. A piece of jewelry can be more than an adornment; it can be a connection to place, memory, and my heritage. My intention is to create work that invites the wearer to feel that connection and to carry a small story with them. I want people to walk away with a piece of the story about Aquinnah and how our people survived through hundreds of years. We have grown and changed, but we are still here on our land.”
For more information, visit hatmarchagifts.com. Hatmarcha Gifts will be open at the Aquinnah Cliffs starting on May 1.