Folklore Friday - Garnets

 I can never tire of garnets... 

January's birthstone - from deep wine red to amber brown to forest green... 

I'm missing the jewelry studio this week ( and next) as I am in the midst of teaching a summer intensive Clay Camp. My week is the wheel not the saw; porcelain not polymer. I DID manage to get a few firefly pieces in the kiln this week for this month's COM! 

My only real jewelry time of late has been vicarious, browsing a few hardback library tomes on historical jewelry. So in light of my absence from the studio; I decided to show you garnets from those ancient times. Ancient jewelry has always fascinated me. Materials used, cultural and historical context of pieces, uses and meaning of personal adornments. Jewelry was worn through out history and time, yet carries such meaning with each style and time period....

Whats in a name? 

garnet (n.) 

early 14c., metathesized from Old French grenat "garnet," originally an adjective, "of a dark red color," from Medieval Latin granatum, originally an adjective, "of dark red color," perhaps abstracted from pomegranate (q.v.), from the stone's resemblance either to the shape of the seeds or the color of the pulp. But perhaps the word is from Medieval Latin granum "grain," in its sense of "cochineal, red dye." 

Bottle/Amulet with garnet and chrysocolla. 2nd-3rd century BC

Roman ring - garnet and bronze. Garnet intaglio depicts Minerva. 1st Century AD.

Roman earrings, gold, glass, garnets. Circa 2nd-3rd century AD. (www.elogedelart.canalblog.com) Gold and garnet pin, intaglio carving of Winged Nike/Victory. Roman, Imperial period. (www.vroma.org)

Late Roman gold and garnet ring. Circa 4th century AD. ( www.christies.com)

Eastern Roman gold and garnet earrings. circa 2nd century AD (www.christies.com)

The Canterbury pendant featuring inlaid "cloisonne" garnet.  Anglo Saxon, early 7th century AD. (www.gold.org)

Gold sword fitting, inlaid with garnets. From the Staffordshire Hoard, Anglo-Saxon 7th-8th century AD.  Gold sword fitting, inlaid with garnets. From the Staffordshire Hoard, Anglo-Saxon 7th-8th century AD.

Gold scabbard boss, with garnets. The Staffordshire Hoard.  The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. Discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England, on 5 July 2009, it consists of over 3,500 items that are nearly all martial in character and contains no objects specific to female uses.The artefacts have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.  Gold scabbard boss, with garnets. The Staffordshire Hoard.

Basic Garnet info: 

• Garnet occurs in every color except blue and most varieties are named for their color. Rhodolite is a purplish red, hessonite is the name for an orange, cinnamon, or pinkish variety. Tsavorite is the name given to dark green grossularite. Uvarovite and demantoid are also green varieties. 
• Garnets range from a 7.0 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness and are found in the U.S. (Arizona), South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Myanmar (Burma), Scotland, Switzerland and Tanzania .  
• Garnet's powers include healing, strength, and protection and it is often worn to relieve inflammations of the skin. It is also believed to regulate the heart and blood flow and aid in curing depression. In earlier times, garnets were exchanged as gifts between friends to demonstrate their affection for each other and to insure that they meet again.

I hope you have enjoyed this ancient sampler. I didn't even touch upon the Renaissance, the Victorian era... so much rich history. Perhaps you'll find inspiration here, it will keep me satiated until I return to the studio! 

Freeform Friday: Majolica!

Majolica -
In one word, one style there is so much history culture and tradition...

In my next pair of posts I would like to dazzle you with pictures, place Majolica in art/ceramics history, and show you how I am applying it to a series of pendants and charms. Ready? Cool...

Majolica is a tin glazed pottery - which translates as a colored earthenware clay body, with an opaque white (tin-based) glaze. Decorations are painted on top of the white glaze...
"Tin-glazed pottery is pottery covered in glaze containing tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque. The pottery body is usually made of red or buff colored earthenware and the white glaze was often used to imitate Chinese porcelain. Tin-glazed pottery is usually decorated, the decoration applied to the unfired glaze surface by brush as metallic oxides... The makers of Italian tin-glazed pottery from the late Renaissance blended oxides to produce detailed and realistic polychrome paintings.

The earliest tin-glazed pottery appears to have been made in Iraq in the 9th century... From there it spread to Egypt, Persia and Spain before reaching Italy in the Renaissance, Holland in the 16th century and England, France and other European countries shortly after." (Thanks Wiki)

1. Dish with bird, in Islamic-derived style, Orvieto, ca.1270-1330

2. A Hispano-Moresque dish, with Christian monogram "IHS", . Valencia, c.1430-1500.

3.Iznik dish - British Museum. Dated 1540-1550.

4. Persian Pottery from the city Isfahan, 17th century.

Tracing its history is an amazing cultural trek across the Medieval landscape. And I love that kind of thing... Persian pottery ---- Islamic Moorish Spain---Renaissance Italy---then a jump to the left  (Is the Time Warp playing in your head now?) and into Victorian England where they really change it up... It's Maiolica in Italy. It's Faience in France. It's talavera in Mexico... I can't get enough!

1. An albarello (drug jar) from Venice or Castel Durante, 16th century. Approx 30cm high
2.  plate depicting the birth of Venus, by Francesco Xanto Avelli of Rovigo, 1533
3. Coppa amatoria depicting Elena Bella, majolica, from Castel Durante, Urbino, c. 1540–50
4. storiato decoration on a plate fromCastel Durante, c.1550-1570

1. detail of plate by William de Morgan Victorian era/late 1800's
2. G Jones majolica quail game tureen 
3. from Pinterest... sorry no details.
4. 19thc Victorian French Majolica Palissy Ware. Pike Fish Platter

And the modern contemporary era? Yes, many current potters are still using the age-old techniques in new ways, with modern aesthetic sensibilities! 

1&3 - Posey Bacopoulos
2 &4 - Linda Arbuckle

Are your eyes dazzled yet? Do you want to time travel to the Middle Ages and serve an apprenticeship? ( I do, but I'm an art history geek like that...)

Majolica isn't for everyone. Some pieces is so over the top, so ornate, so colorful. Embellished to a crazy place. But, you ask... where is the connection to Art Jewelry? 

Let me leave you with a teaser for my next post in 2 weeks. I have majolica pieces in progress - pendants and charms. These are part of the all-encompassing countdown to Beadfest. Stay tuned in 2 weeks - to see the results. I promise to post them - whether they are good, bad, ugly, or over embellished! 

Until then - have a colorful weekend.
Jenny 

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Resources:

Overview of tin-glazed pottery

Islamic pottery

Moorish pottery wiki

Mexican talavera pottery

Victorian Majolica

Great article on L. Arbuckle's technique and glaze recipes. 

René Lalique Art Nouveau Jewelry - Part 2

 As some of you may know, my husband and I spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal in November.  We visited a wonderful museum there, which includes an amazing collection of works by the famed Art Nouveau jewelry and glass artist,  René Lalique.  I included some photos and information about René Lalique in a previous post.  Today, I'll add more photos and information about Lalique's life and work.

I have been intrigued with Art Nouveau design, ever since I met my then husband-to-be in 1970. He was an exchange student to my high school, from Darmstadt, Germany. Darmstadt is a mid-sized city near Frankfurt, that is home to many outstanding Art Nouveau homes, buildings and sculptures. 

Art Nouveau door in Darmstadt, Germany. Built in 1901.

René Lalique began working as an apprentice jeweler and goldsmith in 1876.  He also took evening jewelry classes and within a few years, he moved to London to continue his studies.

Check out the hinges that connect the grasshopper's legs!

During this formative period, Lalique cultivated his graphic design skills, and developed a unique and naturalistic style that later became his trademark as a jeweler.

In 1880, Lalique returned to Paris and started work as a freelance jeweler and jewelry illustrator.  In 1885 he took over a well known jewelry workshop where he began to build a reputation for his unique jewelry designs.

 His innovations included the use of less expensive elements, such as  translucent enamels, semiprecious stones, ivory and hard stones.

In time, Lalique began to incorporate glass into his jewelry in the form of cast pates-de-verre. Starting in 1893 Lalique began winning numerous jewelry design awards.

 He designed stage jewelry for the actress Sarah Bernhardt. He also created pieces for Siegfried Bing's Maison de l'Art Nouveau, the Paris shop that gave its name to the Art Nouveau movement.

In 1900, at a Paris exhibition, Lalique became known as the founder of a new school of modern jewelry design and was awarded Legion of Honor's Croix de Chevalier.

Lalique went on to design everything from vases to car mascots to statues and church windows.  To say he was prolific is clearly an understatement!

In 1935 Lalique opened a boutique, in Paris, that continues to serve as the main Lalique showroom today.  René Lalique died on May 5, 1945, at the age of 85.

I also took pictures of some of Lalique's vases and home decor items.  I will be posting them on my personal blog tomorrow.  I invite you to visit Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings to see the rest of my Lalique pictures.

Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy

Rene Lalique Jewelry - Lisbon, Portugal

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have recently returned from Lisbon, Portugal.  One of the most memorable parts of our trip was a visit to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.  While we loved seeing the paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Rousseau, Manet, Dégas, Renoir and Monet, the highlight, for me, was a permanent collection of works by René Lalique (1860-1945). 

Lalique was an extraordinarily prolific and talented French designer, known for his Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs in glass, enamel, jewelry and home decor. Wikipedia states that his name became "synonymous with creativity, beauty and quality".  I pretty much have a major jewelry crush on the man and I'll try to show you why today.

My husband and I took a couple hundred pictures of the Lalique Collection.  So far I've only sorted through about a third of them.  So this will just give you a taste of the scope of the collection.  Perhaps I'll do another post as I finish sorting through the rest of the pictures.

Lalique's works were inspired primarily by what were called The Three Fs: Female (form), Fauna and Flora.

 A careful observer of nature, many of Lalique's works include plants and a variety of animals.

Woodland Scene

He did not consider any animals to be repulsive or out of bounds: snakes, parrots, grasshoppers and beetles are found in both his glass-works and in his jewelry.

Owls

I love the swirl of the peacock's tail (see close up in center picture).  The last picture is a drawing Lalique did in planning this piece.

Check out the size of the amethyst in the cockerel's mouth!

This amazing Serpent Pectorial was originally worn with with a strand of pearls draped from each serpent head

Lalique was also inspired by the female form. Much of his work, including his flora and fauna, exhibit the voluptuous curves associated with a woman's body.

Take a look at that mammoth baroque pearl on the left!  Wow!

 The artist pictured women as being gentle and mysterious.  His work featured graceful female nudes whose highly stylized curling hair often swirls sensuously around the object, becoming a design component itself. It is those flowing, graceful, and often asymmetrical lines that so draw me to his work. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour.  I look forward to sharing more with you later.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry - ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry - Etsy