Lowline Fire

This summer, I created a wearable piece of art about the Lowline Fire that occurred outside of Gunnison, Colorado. On July 26th, while hiking below my home in Irwin, I saw a cloud that looked funny over the Anthracite Range. I realized that odd cloud was a plume of smoke as it very quickly grew in size and was tinged with pink. I hurried home to my off grid cabin, thankful to have the internet so I could find out what was happening.

Off and on throughout the next week, I worked on this necklace. The piece of red plastic, I found while hiking, became the perfect flame. So right and wrong, a juxtaposition I learned also applies to wildfires. Devastation versus healthy forests. The time was filled with podcasts and movies about historic fires, fire management history and smokejumpers. See a list of some of my references at the end.

The necklace shows the lightning strike that started the fire, flames, the Castles' Mountain Range, storm clouds, a helicopter delivering water and a rain cloud with rain. The piece was created from sterling silver, 14k gold, garnet, CZ, youngite stone cut by artist, found plastic, flame colored copper, aquamarine briolettes. Both rotors spin on the helicopter and the top blades turn to release the clasp. 

At 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests’ Gunnison Ranger District and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Gunnison Field Office will lift the Lowline Fire area closure. The area received approximately six inches of snow over the last week, reducing fire behavior significantly. 

The Lowline fire is a lightning-ignited wildfire located 14 miles north northeast of Gunnison, Colorado, 11 miles southwest of Crested Butte, Colorado.