Post-Conquest Jewelry From Oaxaca, Mexico

 This is the second post in my two part series on the jewelry of Oaxaca, Mexico.  The first installment dealt with Pre-Hispanic jewelry from the state of Oaxaca. Today's post will take a look at jewelry production after the conquest.

Since prehistoric times, what is now known as Oaxaca, had been known for jewelry production.  The area was rich in gold, silver, semi-precious stones and pearls. Sophisticated goldsmithing skills were probably acquired from South and Central America, via the maritime trade routes.

(all photos by Linda Landig)

 When the Spanish colonized Mexico, the existing  jewelry industry was quickly dismantled by the Catholic missionaries, who feared that it promoted the veneration of native gods.  Gold jewelry created by pre-Hispanic craftsmen was melted down and shipped to Spain. Over time native metalsmithing skills were discouraged and forgotten.

Soon after Cortes set foot in Mexico, beads became a standard item of trade.  Many of the old necklaces were made with red white-heart beads made in Italy in the 16th century and brought to Mexico by traders. Another popular trade bead were chevron beads from Venice. Chevron beads were mostly traded in the southern part of Mexico, including Oaxaca

 In the Santo Domingo Museum, in Oaxaca, one can see documentation, drawn by the friars, of beads used by the indigenous population.

Even today, among the more isolated Indian groups, the main personal adornments are strands of dried berries, seed pods, small shells and glass beads brought by traders.  One sees this type of necklace in the local open markets.  Sometimes little old coins or small silver charms in the form of animals, religious symbols or bells are dangled from the beaded necklaces.

In San Pedro Quiatoni, a small town south of Oaxaca city, women wore unusual necklaces of long glass beads from the 16th century.  The glass rods are about 2.5 inches long, with a looped end, so they can be strung. These necklaces have been handed down through the generations and some were brought to the larger cities for sale.  They are are sometimes seen today at festivals.  Our landlady was the proud owner of one of these distinctive necklaces.

In time, the Spanish friars and priests taught the indigenous Mexicans traditional Spanish styles of metalsmithing.   Initially the Spaniards focused on the creation of religious jewelry, such as crucifixes and rosaries and ornamentation for the churches.

We were in Oaxaca during Holy Week and saw these statues of Mary during a Good Friday procession.  Notice all the gold and silver ornamentation.

Often the same goldsmiths that created church ornamentation, such as those in these pictures, also produced personal jewelry for the wealthy.

Eventually personal adornment became more prominent in Mexico.  Jewelry was created in gold and silver and was embellished with pearls, coral and diamonds.  Until Independence in 1810, the jewelry was Colonial Baroque in style.

Filigree was introduced to the Mexicans by the Spaniards, who had, in turn, probably learned it from the Moors.

Most every woman in Mexico wears earrings and nearly every baby girl's ears are pierced and decorated with tiny gold rings.  The most common earring shape is a crescent, which likely originated with the Moors. These are commonly filigree with a fringe of little balls or drops.

Most of what you see in the shops these days is simply gold or silver colored metals or perhaps plated metals.  Precious metal filigree earrings are available too but at a much greater price!  I took this picture in artisan craft store, but I'm quite sure that they are just plated.

 It is interesting to note that individual villages have developed distinct styles of jewelry design.  Because the villages were traditionally quite isolated, the styles did not spread.

Yalalag women of Oaxaca wore a distinctive style of cross necklace. The necklaces are either gold or silver.  They typically had a large central cross with several smaller crosses suspended from it.  The young unmarried women from Yalalag traditionally wore earrings, while the cross necklace was worn upon marriage.

I hope that you enjoyed this bit of history and that you have perhaps found these pictures to be an inspiration.  I am indebted to Martha Rees, our landlady in Oaxaca, and now our friend, for the use of her reference material.

Linda Landig  
Linda Landig Jewelry

Pre-Hispanic Jewelry from Oaxaca Mexico

The earliest jewelry from what is today, Oaxaca, Mexico, was discovered in the tombs of Monte Alban. The Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban lie on a mountaintop, not far from Oaxaca city and date back to about 500 BC.   Not only was elaborate jewelry buried with the priests and noblemen there, but there are many carvings and sculptures that depict the various gods wearing earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and elaborate head gear.

All pictures by Linda Landig at the Santo Domingo Museum, in Oaxaca city.

 

Priests and royalty were buried with all their earthly possessions, so they could carry the items with them into the next life. Body adornment that was taken to the grave helped preserve some of these treasures. But the Spaniards later took huge amounts of the gold jewelry and art and melted it down into gold bullion.  

The simplest jewelry consisted of drilled stones strung into necklaces and carved into ear plugs.

The area was rich with the gifts of the earth and sea, such as turquoise, pearls, coral, quartz crystal, obsidian, shells, iridescent feathers and jade, all of which were incorporated into art and jewelry.

I love the way the double strands (below) are spaced with two-hole dividers in this necklace. Pretty impressive.

Some of the stones were embellished with carved designs, as is the case with this jade bead set.

The necklaces pictured below are evidence of a society with a well developed sense of design and sophisticated metalsmithing skills. Craftsmen specialized in different materials and were divided into different groups, such as stone sculptors, lapidaries, mosaic workers and goldsmiths.  The various disciplines even developed guilds.

Oaxaca was one of the prime gold centers in what today is Mexico and south to Costa Rica.  The gold used in pre-hispanic jewelry was not usually mined, but was found as pure nuggets in the river beds.     

Goldsmiths were held in high regard, both for the beauty they created as well as the skill required.   The two most common methods of working the gold were casting and beating. Gold was cast using the lost-wax method.  It was also beaten into thin sheets which could be decorated by punching and repoussé  Sometimes thin layers of gold were layered over clay or charcoal beads for a more economical use of the gold.

This bracelet is a lovely example of pre-hispanic chasing and repoussé.

Amazingly the pre-hispanic goldsmiths worked without iron tools or knowledge of the wheel.  All the work shown here was created with stone hammers and chisels, obsidian knives and bone drills!

 

 A notable characteristic of pre-hispanic Mexican jewelry is the quality of movement. This is most evident the the multiple pendants or fringes that are suspended at the centers of the necklaces, many of which end in "cascabeles" or little bells, which accentuated the movements of the priests during ceremonies.

Isn't this just gorgeous?!

 This one reminds me of some ancient Egyptian jewelry for some reason.

Like the stone sculptures mentioned earlier, deities were also depicted adorned with jewelry in gold.  The filigree-type work, at the top of the mask ,represents the feathers of the god of the sky.  I wish I knew the meaning of the scary looking mouthpiece.

I'll end this post with a grand finale piece:  A turquoise, coral and gold, multi-strand necklace with gold spacer bars.  Wow!

My next AJE post will be an introduction to some of the jewelry made after the arrival of the Spaniards.  I hope you'll join me then.

Linda 

Linda Landig Jewelry

Improvising A Jewelry Booth In Oaxaca

When I came to Oaxaca for the winter, I brought bead supplies, shipping supplies and a sketch book.  It never occurred to me that I might have an opportunity to show my work here, but that is just what happened!

 Usually my booth display looks something like this.  See all those props?  They are all in the states, not here!
The Oaxaca Lending Library is the oldest English Language Library in Mexico and they host an annual so-called "Flea Market" in February, as a fund raiser for their many projects.  Most of the people selling at the market are expats who are downsizing and selling their collections of local crafts.  There were many gorgeous textiles, as well as household goods, Mexican silver jewelry, woodwork etc.

Photo by Alan Goodin

But there were also a couple of artists' booths, so I decided to give it a go.  The booth fee was reasonable and I figured that even if I didn't sell anything, the money would be going to a good cause.  Ah, but how to set up a halfway decent booth with no props and no intention of spending money on new booth decor?

I wanted to create some height.  Nothing is more boring than a bunch of jewelry laid out flat on a table!  I figured that making tented earrings cards would add some height. My first thought was to buy a couple of sheets of card stock to create the tented earring cards and hang tags.  But all I could find here were complete reams of card stock!  Uh, no way was I buying a whole ream!  So instead,  I bought a brown legal sized file folder and cut out earring "tents" from the folded side.

I used a sewing needle to punch hole for the ear wires. I wrote Linda Landig Jewelry across the top of the cards and put my web address on the back.  I wrote the price in pesos and dollars on the bottom, front of the cards (Yes, I had to convert all my dollar prices.).  Not elegant, but the earring cards were functional and stood up nicely on the table.

I used the rest of the file folder to create price hang tags. I didn't have regular string, so I used some waxed cotton that I'd brought with me for knotted jewelry designs.

My regular jewelry both has several risers to create height, so I scouted around the house for a substitute. I found several baskets without handles that could be flipped upside down for risers.

 To cover the table I used two sheets of scrapbook paper that I brought with me for jewelry photo backgrounds.  I also used a gray foam sheet, that I had been beading on, two woven place mats and the unused remainder of the file folder.  And here's the result:

Its not fancy, but hey, it's not bad either, especially considering that I was creating something out of nothing and I only shelled out 10 cents for the cost of a file folder.

And here's the thought that I want to leave you with.  Situations that knock you out of your usual ways of doing things, lead to creative problem solving and flexible thinking patterns.  That is one of the reasons I enjoy traveling.  As artists, I think it is important that we seek out experiences that challenge us to move outside our routines and usual ways of doing things.  It doesn't need to be travel, but just don't let yourself get too comfortable.  What are some ways that you create flexible thinking for yourself?

Linda 

Linda Landig Jewelry

Feliz Año Nuevo - Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Oaxaca, Mexico!  My husband and I are making a long-time dream come true in 2015.  We are living in Oaxaca for part of the year!

Oaxaca's beautiful Zocolo (central plaza). 

Two years ago, we spent a month here and this year we are expanding our stay to three months. We have rented a delightful little house on the outskirts of Oaxaca (near a bus line).  We just moved in last night and are very pleased with our new abode.  We have 2 bedrooms, a tiled kitchen, living room/dining area and a private garden sitting area with a lime tree and blooming poinsettias!

 Oaxaca is famous for its black, burnished pottery.

I will be writing more about how this adventure affects my creative journey in the weeks ahead, but in the meantime, I am re-posting a piece I wrote in March 2013, on the Oaxaca Jewelry Museum.  Enjoy! 

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My husband and I spent 5 weeks in Mexico last fall.  We rented a small house, in the beautiful colonial city of Oaxaca, for 4 of those weeks.  I could talk for hours about our experiences there, but for today, I'd like to share our visit to the Belber Jimenez Museum. 

Belber Jimenez Museum

 This museum has an extensive collection of Mexican jewelry from pre-Colombian times through the early 20th century.  The museum is based on the jewelry and craft collection of an internationally known Oaxacan jeweler, Belbar Jimenez; who now resides in the United States.

Unfortunately for me, all of the signage was in Spanish.  My Spanish ability is pretty sketchy, but I will do my best to share the bits I understood.

The first pieces of jewelry I will share, were found in the nearby archaeological ruins of Monte Alban.  My husband and I visited this amazing site.   Its sheer size is almost unfathomable.  Archaeologists are still at work in Monte Alban and they continue to excavate temples and other ceremonial buildings.

Beautiful jewelry was discovered at Monte Alban and it is treasured both for its artistry, as well as its value as a cultural heritage.  (A bit of a disclaimer here:  All the jewelry was behind glass and the lighting was often quite dim.  Therefore picture quality is poorer than I wish it were.)

Monte Alban jewelry

The picture below is of Monte Alban reproduction jewelry, (from a different museum).  Monte Alban jewelry has such cultural value that not just anyone is authorized to reproduce it.  You have to get a government license to do so and only the very finest jewelers will qualify.

Here is a YouTube video showing the work of some jewelers creating Monte Alban reproductions.

Moving onward to the colonial period, the Spanish introduced filigree jewelry, which they, in turn, learned from  Byzantine goldsmiths' work.

There was also a nice collection of jewelry from the early 1900's through the 1920's. Apparently there was quite a  renaissance in Mexican jewelry during that time.  I believe that the next two pieces are from the early 1900's, but I am not certain.

This necklace was created in the 1920's, but the motif is based on an ancient Zapotec fishing story.

I can't remember the date for this next necklace.  It looks to me like something from the 40's or 50's maybe.

There is one more picture that I wish I could share.  It is  jewelry that Frida Kahlo was wearing when she died - jewelry that was a gift from Diego Rivera.  However before I could take that picture, a museum employee told me that I wasn't allowed to take any pictures in the museum.  Luckily he did not make me erase the pictures I had taken so far, which is why I can share this jewelry with you today.  I hope you have enjoyed this little jewelry museum tour!

Linda 

Linda Landig Jewelry