Vegetal and foliate motifs are commonly used motifs in textile design. Be it the arrangement of leaves on a stem in golden proportion or the veins in a leaf, Foliage, as a theme works well in print making, embroidery and even weaving. Traditional textile motifs of Tamil Nadu such as the veni or Kodi/Kodi visiri – creeper (not to be confused with the other meaning of kodi – a flag) and elai – leaf can be seen on sarees and dress materials. The same can be said of foliate motifs such as Kalga, Jhallar and Bel used in North India. Currently, I am working on my newest collection – Banjaran Dreams, which is fabric jewellery. Hence, I thought that would be great to examine the adaption of motifs of Foliage in fabric jewellery apart from metal jewellery in this post.
Foliage in fabric jewellery
First up is a zardosi necklace with painted connectors. I have further embellished the pendant with soft gold tassels. There is a repetition of foliate motifs throughout the piece, in the pendant, clasp, and the bails to reinforce the concept. The necklace is of looped beads and link chain. It has no earrings and is available for sale.
Green Paisley set
The next is a piece that I showed on the post on pendants and earrings sets. I created this set in black and greenish gold specifically for this foliage challenge but revealed it before. The fabric used is a polyester jacquard woven with a greenish gold zari thread that has a subtle sheen to it. The earrings are one inch squares and the pendant is around three inches long. This set is also for sale.Â
Foliate jewellery in metal
After some Foliage in fabric jewellery, here are a couple of pieces in metal that I made earlier.
Copper leaf Necklace
This is a necklace of agate beads in purple garnet – wine colour. I have used stone studded metal beads, copper wire springs, Czech glass beads and crystals to add interest and variety. The pendant is form folded copper and is oxidised with liver of sulfur to get an aged look. Since I made this set on commission for the 10th wedding anniversary of a client, I wanted to make it special. I made leaf like headpins with wire and strung the barrel beads and agate on them. The clasps and ear hooks are hand made as well.
Altered Perfume bottle
Last semester, I saw a student of mine wear three mini metal Attar bottles – Perfume bottles. When I told him that I really like them, he gave all three of them to me despite my futile protests. I altered two of them with patina inks but only this one turned out the way I wanted. This pomander is in the shape of a mango seed with leaf motifs on it. It came with a long chain that can be worn around the neck. While you can’t really open it like a pomander, you can open the lid and fill it with a liquid. I am yet to try it though. This is not for sale.
With that I come to the end of the post. I am glad to have such monthly challenges for they make want to really make an effort to create and blog about my work. So looking forward to hearing from you on what you think of my work.
I will write about the more embellished – festive pieces of Banajran dreams soon. In the meanwhile, if you interested in seeing the entire Banjaran dreams range, please do look up the shop page here.
This month’s Participants
This is a blog hop reveal for Art Elements’ September challenge. Please visit the other participants to see how they have all interpreted the theme foliage.
Guest Artists
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