Recently I put up an exhibition of my some of my more “artsy” jewelry at my workplace. The idea was not to sell but create a conversation with jewelry. Here are some pictures (Forgive the picture quality due to low lighting conditions)
Exhibition of my Jewelry
I created a small display with body form, two tables, and a shelf created by students of the accessory design department. I displayed four of my pieces – Folium Anomalous, Exotic Copper Blossoms, The Flowering and the Parrot that asked for likes, all of which had copper sheet metal components. I drapped a body form with some muslin to create a focal point for my display. As my jewelry mainly comprised of organic motifs, I wanted the drape to be unstructed and organic too. The necklace displays as usual were desktop calendars (Psss: That was my well kept secret unti l now). I also made description cards for all the designs using Canva and changed parts of the description to suit the theme of the exhibition better.
Folium Anomalous
I made Folium Anomalous in 2014 for a show which never happened in the end and the flowering was over the mixed media excellence awards that called for entries late last year. The “Parrot that asked for likes” was a component I made for a class demo last year and it remained as an UFO until now. Out of the four, the only hit was the Exotic Copper Blossoms which won a bead star award in 2014 (Honorable mention). I wore it in 2016 August at Beadfest and got tons of compliments, so I tinkered it a bit with inks to freshen it up for the display.
There is a reason for saying all of the above. All four pieces were experimental, attractive, statement making, and made to showcase my skills as a jewelry maker. However, they were/are commercial failures. They were made with a lot of effort and love and it was difficult to see them simply sleep inside a box somewhere in my cupboard. I am hardly ever patient, yet I am known for my perseverance. I was determined to showcase these pieces at a physical location before putting them up on the blog and my tenacity eventually paid off. Sometimes, you just have to have faith.
I’ll write separate posts for Folium anomalous and and the Flowering. Until then here is the description that I used for the other two pieces.
Exotic Copper Blossoms
In this digital age when imagination is dictated by instagram filters, what do you think of a world where all the flowers are green and the leaves are red orange in color? Necklace made of Copper Sheet metal and Pacci beads, wire
The Parrot that asked for likes
Social media channels today are filled with digital images begging to be “Liked” or “hearted”. How would it be if a talking parrot much like its human, digitally mutated itself to ask for likes? How would it pose? What filters would it use on its photos and what sort of a description would it write?
Handmade textured bib necklace made of Copper Sheet metal, glass and pacci bead and patina inks. It is available for sale.
And that’s me with the display, absolutely tired at the end of a very long day. I am wearing very interesting jewelry here apart from my usual watch and copper kada. I am wearing a Cowrie shell necklace, red and black seed earrings made by Santhal tribal women that I bought at Shanthiniketan. I’ll write about that trip soon. I am also wearing a hodgepodge ring of sorts using beads sent by my swap & hop partner Karin. Once what I sent reaches her, I will reveal both what she sent and I sent. The final accessories (conveniently cropped in this image) are my ugly sandals large enough to hold my bandaged leg. I had fallen down a couple of days before the event and and was limping for a week.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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