In the previous post we looked at ophthalmology and eye inspirations. In that post we touched upon a fascinating niche of the jewelry world – Surrealist pieces featuring eyes, noses, and lips as their central motifs.
Among these creations, none shine brighter than Salvador Dalí's pieces and, in particular, the "Eye of Time" brooch, originally crafted by Alemany & Ertman in 1949 for Dalí's wife, Gala, part of a collection that included 39 pieces.
It consisted in a diamond and platinum blue eye, adorned with a ruby at the lacrimal sac and crowned with a teardrop pendant. The eyeball integrated a watch with a dial hand-painted and signed by Dalí.
The artist's pieces unleashed in the decades that followed a trend for eye, nose, ear and lips jewelry.
In more recent times, Delfina Delettrez often featured eyes in her jewelry collections, particularly in her collaboration with Kenzo during the A/W 2013-14 season; then, in 2015, she did an entire series of Dalí-esque pieces – the collection dubbed "Faceted".
An earlier iconic contribution to the realm of "visage" jewelry was actually a necklace with eyes and lips enamel pendants designed by Niki de Saint Phalle in the '70s for the Milanese goldsmith Giancarlo Montebello's Gem Montebello label.
Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli remixed Dalí, de Saint Phalle and Delettrez's designs (mind you, the latter were already a remix of Dalí's jewelry, that's probably why Delettrez didn't really object when in more recent years Roseberry produced a variety of eyes, lips, ear and nose pieces…) and came up new pieces along these lines.
Should your tastes tend toward the avant-garde and the unsettling (or should you be considering remixing this inspiration that has anyway been pilfered and remixed so many times that nobody cares anymore about who did it first and about copyright infringements….), try Midjourney.
A very basic prompt about "eye jewelry" provided a steampunk necklace which wasn't so original actually.
But things got a bit more messed up when the prompt asked the system to generate eye earrings and Midjourney actually came up with an earring for an eye that looks rather painful to wear.
More prompts about pendants offered ceramic pendants with glass eyes (retaining the bulbousness of the natural eye compared to the flat printed resin eye used by Roseberry in his pieces for Schiaparelli View this photo) and eerily lifelike eyelashes, complete with a crystal tear, or pendants and a nose that actually looked like a vagina (naughty, naughty Artificial Intelligence…).
The scariest interpretation of the "visage" jewelry courtesy of Midjourney was instead a ceramic green face in two versions – a dreamy one and a rather scary version, featuring a pair of eyes, three noses and a trio of screaming mouths.
Maybe it represents the expression you'd do when encountering yet another "visage" jewelry piece in a fashion collection, or perhaps, it is the embodiment of a chilling nightmare.
Anyway, for those determined to embrace eye or visage pieces with a very surreal and innovative twist, and for inspirations for imaginative creations that blur the lines between art, fashion, and pure whimsy, explore the extraordinary world of Luigi Serafini.
His magnum opus, the Codex Seraphinianus, initially published in 1981 in Italy by Franco Maria Ricci, stands as an iconic reference for creative minds across various disciplines, from architects to fashion and interior designers.
Amidst its pages of amazing illustrations, which include astonishing and disconcerting creatures, you'll find fish that bear an uncanny resemblance to eyes. You don't have to copy them, but let them remind you that a dash of playfulness and of eccentric absurdism is what makes a statement piece, so maybe it's time to leave behind the "visage" pieces and find more personal inspirations for your jewelry collection.