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A friend sent me The Independent newspaper's jewellery supplement from a few weeks ago. It was a review of the hottest jewellery designers of the moment. For the benefit of those of you who may not have had the pleasure, I would like to mention the designers whose work reached out to me on so many different levels.
At www.damsonjewellery.co.uk; Jo McDonald's beautiful 'blue bird pendant' of 18 carat gold with vivid blue enamelling; Hannah Louise Lamb's divine 'curve leaf mismatch' earrings, reminiscent of silhouette artistry; the wonderfully delicious organic texture of Rebecca Steiner's 'silver split pod' necklace. MMmm...
Moving on to www.violetmanners.com, designer Nisha Thirkell truly seduced me with her mouthwatering covetable delights and curios. An almost sexy creepiness of Burtonesque (as in Tim, the God),Victorian Gothic imagery. I adore the 'filigree brooch' with skull, watch face, jet glass buttons & golden leaves, and the similar '3 strand filigree necklace'.
I have always been attracted to silver or white metal jewellery, so I found myself surprisingly enthralled by the work of the brilliant designer Bjorn Weckstrom (www.lapponia.com), especially the utterly gorgeous 18 carat gold and citrine 'Prisma Ring'..The facets and cuts, the rough and the smooth reminded me of sculptors stone before and during the artistic process. A delicious chunk of finger candy.
So, it was the designs of Nisha Thirkell that got me into thinking about Victorian jewellery (1837-1901). I had always had the misconception that the Victorians were very stoical and sparse with their jewellery adornment. How wrong I was.
Personal adornment was a precise, well planned art of ornamentation, accessorizing fashions of the time as well as indicating wealth and social status.
The Victorians were the first to popularize diamonds as engagement rings. They brought back the Cameo, gave us (now highly collectible) portrait lockets & immaculately crafted woven hair jewellery, chains with lorgnettes, fob watches,souvenir/holiday jewellery (miniature jet animals with pin holes through which sepia prints of popular holiday destinations could miraculously be seen).
For the Victorians, death expectancy, due to high infant mortality, was common place, and so the passing of loved ones was commemorated with long mourning periods and silent memorial of life lost was demonstrated through the wearing of 'Mourning Jewellery' comprised of horn, hair, black enamelling, jet, vulcanite, bog oak, seed pearls & gutta percha (in-elastic natural latex from the Gutta Percha tree common to SE Asia).
Far from spartan and plain, the Victorians expressed great sentiment and romance through jewellery pieces packed with symbolism. No era better illustrates the phrase 'wearing your heart on your sleeve'.
Bibiography:
- www.morninggloryantiques.com/JewelChatVict.Jwl.html;
- www.royaldoultonantiques.com/jewelryvictorianmourning.htm;
- www.victoriana.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha
I'm writing in orange. Bold, warm, vibrant, demanding, zingy & happy. Originally of safflower, Dragon's Blood tree, and of madder. A wonderful, yet rarely celebrated colour.
Today, I have not thought intently. Today has been a day of doing. No procrastination. No hesitation. Just pure doing and completion. It is a great feeling to have actually started and finished two creative projects in the same day. I'm trying to make the most of this new found discipline. I hope tomorrow will be just as rewarding.
Firstly, when I popped into Caffe Nero for my daily caffeine fix this morning, I realised that tomorrow would be James's last day. How quickly time has passed. All the staff I know at Nero are great people. Their friendly faces and warm spirits have more than helped quell any depressions of mood whilst I have been off sick. So thankyou to Jamie, James, Chris, Erin, Charlene & Magda...You have been appreciated and I think of you all as friends. Anyway, back to James, who is leaving tomorrow to go and manage Caffe Nero in Hexham. Good luck and all the very best. I thought some form of customer appreciation was due, and so crocheted him these Noro Kureyon fingerless gloves (it is bitterly cold here at the moment).
I just thought it would be a nice little leaving gift.
I believe that people working in customer service industries are not thanked enough. Two syllables that can turn somebody's day into something positive, something to smile about. Two syllables that are so rarely uttered. More thank yous from everybody please! We seem to have so many, often obscure, 'days' in this country, why can't we have a 'Thankyou Day'? ANYWAY....
The second creative wonder of today is my GREEN SEA GLASS NECKLACE. Remember the Whitley Bay sea glass expedition from yesterday? Well, I couldn't help myself, I just had to get the wonderful idea from my head into three dimensional form. I spent a while wrapping some of the sea glass with silver plated wire, then made up some other components using items from my 'seashore treasures' shoebox. I added some crocheted mohair chains and interwove some gorgeous seaweed-like funky fibre around my shells and pendants. I am very proud to show you the delicious fruit of my labour:
You are unable to see it very well in the photo, but the piece of sea glass I used for the central pendant must have been two separate nuggets at some point as there is a piece of net fused inside the glass in a cross shape. It was a lovely suprise find and very apt for this design.
I love working with natural shapes and organic textures. I like to try and create unusual, one of a kind pieces of wearable art. Although I tend to follow similar themes in my work, no two items are ever exactly the same.
The next photo shows how the piece looks when worn.
Despite the suggestively, weight-adding components of this necklace, it is suprisingly light and very comfortable to wear.
Although it is not really required on this sturdy ball ended torque base, I have added a barrel clasp to decorative sterling silver chain at the back, for additional wearer security.
Back to the crochet tonight!
