AlpaSuri commissioned me to design a set of gold-plated alpaca sculptures and pendants. The sculptures stand six inches tall. The pendants are scaled down from the same form.

AlpaSuri is a an Aplaca farm based in Germany, run by Barbara Bruns and Wolfgang Stamp. They focus on white Huacayas with low-micron fleece. Their award winning animals have won at international shows. When they approached me, they were looking for pieces that could carry that level of care into a different material.

The form is the alpaca reduced to its essentials. The body breaks into rounded segments. The neck rises in a stack of soft volumes. The legs are full and rounded, planted square. The whole figure feels like it could have been pulled from a single breath of gold. From across a room the silhouette is unmistakably an alpaca. Up close it becomes something else, a study in volume and surface.

The same form scales down to a pendant. Worn close to the body, the silhouette still holds. It works as a quiet signal among people who know what AlpaSuri is, and as a beautiful object for anyone who doesn’t.