During the Good Friday – Easter weekend, I had a staycation along with a 2 day road trip with my parents. We visited a lot of temples that were on our bucket list for quite a while. However, To keep monotony at bay, I planned a side trip to visit Pichavaram, a mangrove forest.
Pichavaram mangrove forest
Pichavaram is located enroute to Chidambaram from Chennai, via Cuddalore. It is a salt water wetland mangrove ecosystem with 14 exclusive mangrove species. It is about 1100 -1400 hectares in area and has about 115 routes of travel via boat. Tamil Nadu has very limited Mangrove cover around 39 square KM (in 2010) which has subsequently reduced due to both natural and man fuelled calamities. Read more about the mangroves on India on this Forestry page.
Pichavaram is a place to go boating and birdwatching. You can have a picnic too if you take food along. There are two types of boats available – row boat and motor boat which are typically hired on sharing basis. Row boats are top open and motor boats have a cover. We went on a very hot day, hungry around 1:15PM in the afternoon. Since we were not in a mood to spend a lot of time in the heat, we hired a motor boat. I found a family of 5 to share it with so it worked out to Rs.150 per person for 45-60 minutes which turned out to be cheaper than the row boat.
Pichavaram Mangrove forest boating
The boat ride begins with a medium sail into the vast expanse of water followed by a quick sail closer to the trees. Our boatman explained how shallow the water was and pointed to the different varieties of trees that grow there. He also told us about the birds that visit the area and the movies that were shot around the lake and the forest. Did you know that mangroves have breathing roots? Many of the trees have knees that help the aeration process as well.
It was interesting to share the ride along with a family with 3 little kids. The older ones(about 7-8) kept pointing to crabs, different birds, oddly shaped roots and other odds and ends along the banks. My mom took one close look at the roots and told me “to observe carefully so as to make jewellery based on them later.” Well, that is exactly what I intended to do then.
Into the forest Jewellery
So when AJE announced forest as their theme at the end of April, I was super excited. Based on my memory of the Pichavaram mangrove forest visit, I planned to do a range of narrative jewellery. I even made the theme and colour board shown here to guide me. I planned to use the greens and blues that were there in my photographs along with the browns for my collection. Unfortunately, time went by quickly. I could only finish one pair of earrings, a copper cuff and two form folded leaves – which were all previous UFOs.
Mangrove Earrings
These are rod soldered copper wire earrings that have been oxidised and coloured. I cut copper wire into bits and soldered them together along with small copper leaves. To create the “knees” of the mangrove trees, I let the solder flow and pool. This is one of those “things not to do while soldering, I believe.” However, I used it to create the required effect as balling the copper wire was ineffective.
I am a novice at soldering. In the past, I have attempted paste, rod and plate or piece soldering but I lack finesse. I do like rod as it the easiest when it comes to working with different metal and thickness. However, I do not have access to 100% lead free rods so it is difficult to work with the fumes. These earrings actually started off as a practice piece – to try soldering. But I liked how it turned out and added swellegant paste and patina ink to to finish it. It is quite lightweight even at 2.5″ length.
Verdigris Cuff – Inspiration
I love travel photography. You need to be quick, think on your feet and look at the world as though it will cease to exist the next minute. With the advent of mobile cameras you can experiment with various setting changes quicker than with an SLR. One setting that I love to experiment with while travelling is White Balance. The right light setting makes pictures softer and more luminous in my opinion. Do you remember the amazing Angkor Wat sunrise photos? They were the result of WB changes and not editing. I applied the same concept to Pichavaram and got some great pictures as well – a.k.a the first picture on this post. That photograph is the inspiration for my Verdigris cuff.
Verdigris Cuff
I started with a layered copper cuff that I had made in class. It was two years ago and I made it to demonstrate ruffling metal. The lop layer was a piece of thin copper that I hammered over a texture blank. I found this cuff along with my other UFO while working on the Luna Moth necklace. It has oxidised badly and looked dull and lifeless.
I cleaned it to realise that something had spilled on the cuff which could not be removed. To rescue the cuff, I applied cobalt, emerald, and verdigris patina inks to arrive at different shades of Verdigris colour. Due to the spill the wash looks patchy in places but I feel that it somehow replicates the look of the salt water waves gushing against the knotted roots.
This range marks my first presentation of jewellery created using a design method that is based on memory. I hope to streamline it and write about it soon.
Cheers
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