When I posted about Ultraviolet being the colour of the year 2018 in the beginning of January, little did I realise that I would be more violet jewelry for challenges later in the month. They are the January 2018 ABS Challenge and We’re all ears January 18 challenge. The Earring’s challenge theme was Ultraviolet and the ABS challenge is based on an Art Nouveau painting in which violet is a prominent colour. Combining both, here I present Violet Art Nouveau earrings which are Earrings in violets (and purples) made using Art beads.
Inspiration
This month’s inspiration is a painting by Frances MacDonald. Frances along with her sister Margaret, Rennie Mackintosh (creator of the Mackintosh chair), and Herbret McNair belong to the Scottish four or the Glasglow Four. The couples greatly contributed to the Glasglow style of Design during the Art Nouveau movement. You can read more about them and how their life and art influenced each other here.
In my past post on Nouveau roses, I had given a small introduction to the Art Nouveau style of Art and design. This particular painting (said to be a portrait of the MacDonald sisters) shows a lot of the Art Nouveau elements. Apart from the Curvilinear forms, the vines, floral borders, and women in ‘S’ silhouettes, this painting also has certain fan like elements. You can sense the concept of “Female sweetness” mentioned in the above cited Inquiries article in this painting. This particular colour palette is very similar to the Purple Haze palette proposed by Pantone for SS18.
Violet Art Nouveau earrings
As this is a combined post I’ll be showing three pairs of earrings. These Art Nouveau earrings were created using Art beads designed by Mr. Savat and made by lovely talented Khmer women at Claycult, in Siem Reap Cambodia. I picked three elements from the painting to use in these earrings – flowers, fan, and the imagery of two women.
Claycult Cambodia
Claycult is a Ceramic bead and jewelry business and is the brainchild of Lucienne and Robby. It is a business that focuses on sustainability through profit. They empower local women by constantly training them in various areas of the business in addition to making quality, gorgeous beads and jewelry. I was there this past week (yes in Siem Reap!! – pictures and posts will follow once I get settled) to work with them. I taught the girls some wire jewelry techniques and interacted with them regarding their bead making process. These are some of the earrings that we made during the workshop that is inspired by the art Nouveau image above (yes, I planned ahead). I will write a separate post about Claycult and my experience there soon. Until then, take a look at this Facebook live video I posted from Location. Do not forget to hop to the Claycult website to buy their beads.
The first of the three earrings, the one you see above, incidentally titled Spring, is a ceramic flower earrings with silk ribbon wrapped on it. I showed the girls how to create a base structure, make hooks and how to cut silk, fold, and wrap silk. With Silk being once of the foremost produce of Cambodia, I feel that earrings with silk would be a great souvenir from Siem Reap, what do you think?
The second is a pair of simple Fan earrings with long hooks. I believe that Jewelry can be made without fancy tools and to demonstrate that I made this hook with a ball pen. The components by themselves are gorgeous, so they need no other distractions.
Readers of this blog and my friends know that I have trouble with human forms particularly faces when its comes to jewelry making. I try to avoid them at all cost. But this time, I wanted to do something whimsical for the girls as the session was getting too serious. One of the girls, Thally said she liked her face beads the best and wanted to design with them. Another girl, Somnang, had already made the dangles. Thus was born the “Lady wearing a hat” earrings. It is a depiction of foreign women (including me) who walk around Angkor Wat in fancy hats, eyebrows up in a permanent exclamation while considering the distance they have to walk to see the temples each day.
Though it originally began as an interpretation of the painting, the earrings transformed into something more. It became a social comment that evoked a peal of laughter from the girls as they recognised the all too familiar expression.
How do you like these Art Nouveau earrings? Check out what other participants have made for the We’re all ears challenge. Since I made these earrings during the workshop they are not for sale by me. Hopefully, Claycult will look into making similar pieces soon. If you have missed my tutorial to make an Ultraviolet crystal necklace for yourself do check out DIY post with instructions. I just landed today, so once I eat, sleep, and become human again, I’ll sort through my many photographs and show you a glimpse of my travels. Until then – Angkor Wat in Ultra violet for you
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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