.Best Hidden Treasure Trove

Anni Ayers Forcum Gallery

If you stumbled into the Rosebud Gallery on Solano Avenue and caught the owner on a bad day, you might not venture into the rooms beyond. When he’s in a mood, he can resemble a Komodo dragon short on white rats. But if you scurried through to the attached Anni Ayers Forcum Gallery (or if you cheated and took the alleyway), you’d find jazz playing softly and Anni toiling quietly away behind her jewel cases, beveling a stone into a brooch or ring. This is jewelry for women, not ladies — strong, sculptural pieces that look like something a soignée flapper might wear. Anni makes much of it herself and collects other items when they catch her discerning eye. Some of her creations have Cubist sympathies — geometric earrings made of long, skinny tubes ending in chubby 3D triangles; a brooch of colorful semiprecious inlay surrounded by boldly patterned jags and rounded prongs. Some are as fanciful as a tiny pair of oxidized silver high-heeled pumps or jacks, or a fish pin with a textured silver head, a marble for a belly, and a few strands of coral for a tail. The beautifully crafted shapes evoke a more elegant past, a Jazz Age remembrance. (And cut the Komodo dragon some slack — he is, after all, guarding the family jewels.)

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