The monthly Art elements challenge is one of my favourite challenges to participate. Not only is it open to a wide variety of mediums, the work done by the team each month would be phenomenal. The reveal brought a lot of readers and traffic to the blog as well. However, the reveals now happen on Facebook and don’t have a set date. Therefore, I wasn’t motivated to participate the last couple of months. But I had time on my hands this month (Duh, Lockdown!) and thought that I will whip up some Summer Solstice jewellery. See AJE previous challenge reveals here.
Summer Solstice
Solstice comes from the word “solistitium” which refers to the Sun standing still. This makes summer solstice the longest day in summer. Litha or Midsummer is the traditional name of Wiccan sabbath that is observed on (summer) solstice. It was also known as Vestalia in Rome. This year’s solstice was even more exciting because of the annular solar eclipse that happened on 21st June 2020.
Annular Solar eclipse 2020
Did you all follow the solar eclipse? Only a partial eclipse was visible in Southern India but the full eclipse was visible in North Western India. So I watched various Youtube channels that were tracking it live. The diamond ring or ring of fire were supposed to happen at 1:10-1:15 pm local time. Do you know what happened at 12:45PM? I slept off! I don’t know what happened but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. As a consequence I couldn’t see the ring of fire or atleast the bailey beads live. As it turned out, the channels did not capture it as well due to cloudy weather. Here are some screenshots that I took from the live feed. I remember the total eclipse which was visible over India in the 1990s and how we tracked it on TV. I cannot forget how marvelous the phenomena of diamond ring looked. The bailey beads seen this year (and mostly engulfed by clouds) is no match.
Summer Solstice jewellery
Crescent
The inspiration for this piece is definitely the eclipse, though I fear that no one will buy it if I title it that way. Instead, I call it the crescent indicating how the sun looks during the eclipse when seen through a filter. Note the bailey beads in the necklace as well. The necklace is of glass beads in maroon and yellow with a coloured solid metal pendant. The front and back of the pendant are slightly different both in terms of colour and texture. Do take a look. It is for sale along with complimentary earrings.
Litha Earrings
Litha is the Pagan celebration of Summer Solstice. It is about attaining a balance between two natural elements – water and fire. It is said to be a time to commune with nature spirits, plant crops, get married and celebrate life. When I searched for images of Litha on Google, I came across the “wheel of fire” – glowing circles with diagonal lines and colourful flowers in between. I knew I had to make a pair of earrings based on it to add to my summer solstice jewellery range. They remind me forms and colours that I saw in Italy, particularly Venice. This pair of earrings is long and relatively light – for sale.
The Green one
When researching for this challenge, I found reference to deities and figures such as the green man, green lady and garden goddess. They were presumably worshiped on solstice and celebrated for blessings of abundance. If not for the warmth of the sun and the green of the plants, even existence of higher forms of life will be questionable. Therefore, this necklace, the green one is based on light, leaf and life. I made the necklace using glass beads and discs (black glass). The metal pendant was a book binding ornament that I altered. Necklace for sale with complimentary earrings.
I hope that you found my summer solstice jewellery and the stories behind them interesting. Do take a look at the work of other participants in Art elements facebook group here. I miss the blog hop and I wish that they would bring it back soon.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
Leave a Reply