Throughout his life, Calder produced more than 1,800 jewelry objects, each made entirely by hand. His first pieces date back to the 1920s — pieces made for his older sister’s dolls. As an adult, Calder made countless gifts of jewelry for his wife, Louisa James Calder, so many that her dressing table became a kind of private shrine to his devotion.“My grandmother had hundreds of pieces,” said Rower. “The first piece of jewelry he made for her was a little bracelet that read Medusa. They met on a cruise ship and she had long ringlets, and Medusa was his nickname for her.”
“In the late ’30s and early ’40s, the jewelry was the coolest thing for a woman to have,” remarked Rosenthal. “It was not expensive, $25 for a necklace even in the early ’50s.”Female fans would hold “Tupperware parties,” offering Calder pieces for a good price to their friends.
“My grandfather would pack up a box of jewelry –we have one of these boxes in the show — and send them off to a woman patron who would have a little Calder party and then send the money back to him in the same box,” said Rower. “He needed to make a living during the war and thought jewelry making could provide a secondary income.”
