Memories and metal

The abstract, looping ridges of skin on the tips of our pinkies, pointers and thumbs are more than fingerprints. They are small reminders of just how original each one of us really is—unique to the extremities and unique to the core. Take Rachael Lagarde Bordelon, an artist who will stay up till four in the morning to complete a piece. What other former marine biologist-turned-mother of three does that?

Bordelon has always held nature close for a muse. Recently, though, the Opulent Metals owner began focusing more intensely on crafting jewelry pieces that are personal reminders to those wearing them, not unlike fingerprints. Actually, most are fingerprints—sort of.

Using a special blend of epoxy and her own metal molding and sculpture process, Bordelon creates unique silver necklaces, pendants and bracelets using the one-of-a-kind impressions left by fingerprints. Proud moms have them made from their children’s hands, and even dog lovers order jewelry with their pets’ pads providing the designs. Bordelon keeps these impressions cataloged at her studio in bins reminiscent of a CSI crime lab.

Bordelon loves when clients bring their children to her studio to create prints in person, but she also prepares easy-to-use packets that she mails out for clients to return with the impressions of their fingers included.

Many of Bordelon’s commissions use children’s fingerprints, footprints, handprints or even their own artwork, but now roughly half of her pieces are made to honor clients’ loved ones who have passed away or are severely ill. This is art as therapy, for those who purchase it and for Bordelon, who makes it.

kiki boutique at Perkins Rowe has carried her fingerprint pieces for two years. When manager Cammy McGehee’s brother Mark Lowe died in July 2009, owner Kiki Frayard quietly contacted Bordelon, who gave her the epoxy mixture to preserve Lowe’s print at the funeral parlor.

McGehee was so surprised and touched when Frayard gave her a necklace with her brother’s fingerprint that she ordered pieces for the rest of her family.

“My mom wears her necklace every day. So does my sister,” McGehee says. “My dad is afraid to use his keychain just because he doesn’t want it to get messed up. It’s a really sweet piece because it’s so personal, but it’s a subtle thing, and they look good, too.”

Clients, especially those who have remembrance pieces made, say Bordelon becomes a friend. She has plenty of fans of her other artwork, too: iridescent and textured metal sculptures molded from the gnarled branches of oak trees and the critters that crawl along them.

In October, a collection of Bordelon’s latest work—including her stunning Cicada Wheel—was featured at Anne Connelly Fine Art. Early next year her work will show at the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge downtown.

“She’s really an artist, not just someone pumping out jewelry,” McGehee says.

Cicadas, crawfish and dragonflies feature in Bordelon’s jewelry as well as her sculptures, inspired by the summer nights of her youth here in south Louisiana.

“People really like the cicadas,” Bordelon says. “But at first, I never thought someone would want to wear a bug.”

Still, Bordelon receives the most thank-you notes and random calls about the remembrance pieces, from those who felt particularly touched by her work that day.

“That makes me feel like I am doing something meaningful, like I am a part of people’s lives,” Bordelon says. “That’s important to me, because before I kind of thought, ‘Well, it’s just jewelry.’”

As a people person, she says, those relationships and that heartfelt feedback sustain her. Most importantly, Bordelon has found a way to make a true impact on the lives of others through her passion for art. Talk about unique. opulentmetals.com