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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Thinking about jewelry.

Jewelry can take many forms. Almost any materials can be used.  We give labels to jewelry based on materials and techniques. Often very biased judgements are made about those materials and styles based on purely arbitrary standards. Think of fine jewelry, costume jewelry, art jewelry, or assemblage as examples. Present day artists often use what ever catches their attention or sparks the imagination. In art (my background is fine arts) we call using found objects or ready made pieces "modern art". In jewelry we often see people using the same exact components from one or more sources to create new combinations that echo or mimic a style from the past.

I am returning to a foundation form this time with the use of rare, unusual materials. Historically this was how jewelry developed from the use of the more exciting, less common, or hard to find materials. The picture above has on the left a piece of an iron meteorite from the prehistoric Gibeon fall. This was one time an asteroid hit the earth in prehistoric times and was so large it persists today. The main mass is listed as 26 tons. Following is a blurb from Wikipedia.
Name: Gibeon
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.
Observed fall: No
Year found: 1836
Country: Namibia
Mass:help 26 t
My little slice is from an exported fragment from the fall. It shows the internal structures of the crystal matrix of meteoric iron. This pattern is called the Widmanstatten pattern. Below that are beads made from fossilized dinosaur bone. 

I traced the slice of iron and using a pen drew a possible form for wire wrapping to include the bits of dinosaur bone in what I hope will be a pleasing combination.

In olden times this would have been called a talisman. Something to evoke the power of the animal or the sight of a shooting star that brought the metal to earth. Now I call it ornament, jewelry or personal decoration. I embodies both the animal and what some think is the end of all of the dinosaurs.
Later I will post the finished piece.

2 comments:

  1. Love this and cannot wait to see the outcome!

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  2. Here is a link to the finished necklace. https://www.etsy.com/listing/178286877/meteorite-and-dinosaur-bone-beaded-wire

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