Depending from how we wear them or from their shapes, colour and material, accessories can assume different meanings, turning into fascinating elements of the fashion masquerade. A form of decorative adornment, jewellery has a special place in the accessories category.
A highly-charged symbolic ornament in the Victorian era (1837-1901), jewellery reflected for example the aspirations and preoccupations of its owners, communicating them through the use of different materials.
Hair jewellery was for example a sentimental gift, jet jewellery a public statement of mourning, while Berlin ironwork conveyed patriotic pride. This cabinet from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh displays a selection of very interesting pieces.
On the left side of the cabinet there are some refined examples of open weave hair pieces (dated 1830-1850), wrist cuffs, rings, brooches and necklaces.
The hair of beloved friends and relatives was transformed into wearable keepsakes, while a lock would be curled and placed into a locket. Instruction manuals also offered directions for preparing hair and plaiting it at home (the pictures don't make them justice, but the net-like beads in the second image in this post are made with hair and it would have been lovely to know more about the person who made these complex structures, though it is important to remember that intricate patterns and designs with metal mounts were not made at home, but they were created by professional craftspeople).
The centre of the cabinet includes a necklace, a brooch made in Scotland between 1860 and 1870 with pearls and hair and a diamond brooch (1904) containing hair that can be classified as mourning jewellery. Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria popularised black jet (fossilised coal) which became the material associated with mourning jewellery. The hair inside was styled as a Prince of Wales curl, using hot curling irons. The cabinet also includes a small "memento mori" ring (bottom left side of third picture in this post). Memento mori jewellery featured macabre or religious iconography. It served as a reminder of the inevitability of death and was often employed to encourage virtuous living. As time passed, mourning jewellery became more ostentatious.
Jewellery also had a patriotic value as showed by the crosses, bird brooch and cravat pins and tracery earrings and necklace (all from the early decades of the 1800s) on the right side of the cabinet. From 1813 patriotic Prussians offered precious pieces to raise money for their state's rebellion against Napoleon. In return, women were given ironwork jewellery, sometimes bearing the inscription "Gold gab ich für Eisen" (I gave gold for iron). Ironwork jewellery later on became a fashionable accessory.
The intricate lace-like necklace and bracelets on the right side of the display are instead fine examples of Silesian wirework. Iron can be made into a thin thread and woven, pleated or plaited into three-dimensional shapes. Silesian wirework jewellery celebrated the novelty and versatility of this new material known for its strength. The iron in these pieces (made in Germany between the 18th and the 19th century) was worked in such a fine way that it looked like hair or threads.
The National Museum of Scotland also offers visitors the chance to see a small exhibition of contemporary jewellery (on the ground floor) that proves modern pieces may not have the same deep meanings of some of the historical jewels in its collection, but they are equally intriguing, though for different reasons.
Minimalism can be considered as one of the themes of the display on modern jewellery. Caroline Broadhead and Nuala Jamison (C & N) created in the 1980s bespoke accessories for Jean Muir's collections. A round translucent acrylic resin necklace (that can actually be dyed in a wide range of colours - C & N reproduced this design in a variety of pastel shades, experimenting with different lengths and sizes) accompanied by rigid seamless bangles prove that minimal pieces can create striking effects.
Rigidity is also explored in their work through acrylic resin bangles with dramatic accents of silver leaf, while movement is analysed in their necklaces and earrings. The black necklace with ring beads threaded onto a strand of translucent black nylon (fifth image in this post) would have moved on the body, echoing the supple flow and movement of a classic Jean Muir garment; held together with flexible nylon wire, the graduating concentric discs of the yellow cone-shaped earrings would have also moved with the wearer.
Inspired by the Pop Art movement of the 1960s Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins' self-assembly kits - Paper Jewels by Something Special - allowed people to purchase pieces (such as flower or butterfly brooches or pyramid earrings) that were chaeap and fun to wear.
In 2000, the duo was asked by Thames and Hudson to create a new series that resulted in the publication The Paper Jewellery Collection: Pop Out Artwear. Some of the pieces (cone and fan brooches, hair ornaments and the Egyptian and Sun-burst necklaces; sixth image in this post) were recreated for the display at the National Museum of Scotland.
In the '80s Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins created fine metal pieces in gilded brass and dyed acrylic or using enamelled gold/silver: Watkins' “Inflection V/1, Blue-red I” necklace from 1988 (seventh image in this post) is a bold and futuristic piece that displays the artist's interest in innovative techniques such as laser cutting and computer-aided design; Ramshaw's “Ring set for Woman Sitting in a Window” has instead a strong connection with art and consists in 15 silver, blue and yellow agate rings with yellow enamel on a nickel alloy stand and was part of the series “Picasso's Ladies”, inspired by 66 portraits of the most important women in Picasso's life, while a gold and red enamel brooch also included in the display represents the Sutton Hoo treasures.
Fun and surrealism mix in Felieke van der Leest's uplifting crocheted textile and mixed media pieces such as her "Lifebuoy" bracelet (2000) that shows intricate textile techniques in which precious and semi-precious materials are combined to create wearable and quirky artworks; originally believed to have been designed byvan der Leest, the “Hug Me” Brooch, represents a cute Moomin character, and is more likely to have been created by an individual inspired by her work.
Extremely different one from the other, these pieces prove that the process of jewellery designing passes through various stages of meaning-making defined by use, material and medium, and that this meaning refers to psychological, sociological, moral and aesthetic dimensions (think about how specific pieces can signify love, acceptance, belonging, loyalty, identity and so on). Yet the best thing about jewellery remains the fact that it is in continuous evolution and that it definitely goes beyond the mere desire for self-adornment.
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