In Southern India where I live, the days are getting warmer. Spring is almost here and businesses have begun selling spring summer 2022 fashions. Crisp cotton for the upcoming summer, breezy chiffons for spring – these are the descriptions I see on Social media pages of local businesses. If spring is indeed here (yes, climate change is real), then flowers and floral motifs will follow. In anticipation of a spring show, I created a two floral bib necklaces and a brooch. While the show did not materialise, the painted floral leather jewellery photographed with a simple white shirt was received warmly on my Instagram. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.
While the requirements of the upcoming season was a prompt, the inspiration for the painted floral leather jewellery came from my visits to various flowers markets in India.
Flower Markets of India
Flowers are an important part of every day life in India. While the practice of wearing flowers on the hair (by women) everyday has considerably decreased, flowers are still offered to Gods (regardless of the religion) everyday in most houses. Flowers are present in every ritual – from birth to death. Almost every big town or city in India will have a wholesale flower market where tons of colourful marigolds, roses, and jasmine flowers are sold at dawn each day. There will be shops that that sell loose flowers, those that sell strung flowers, garlands and different kinds of floral arrangements. Since the sight is delightful for a photographer or videographer to capture, a visit to a market is typically an assignment that most photography courses will insist on.
Juxtaposing of life and death
Flowers represent the transient nature of life. They bloom, they wither, they die. In the flower markets, large amounts of flowers are thrown away at the end of the day for no one will buy old flowers. They often decompose in lumps and heaps with a stench that the walkers by will try and ignore. Beauty, piety and disgust – these flowers represent different emotions during different times of the day.
In my pieces, I have represented the resplendence and fragile nature of these flowers. While flowers denote life, leather denotes death. Therefore, I paint these flowers on leather juxtaposing the concepts of life and death. The leather that I have used for pieces of painted floral leather jewellery is paper thin – thinner than used for my Jewelry in Narratives project.
The white shirt series
I photographed these pieces of Painted floral leather jewellery not on a plain background as I typically do but on a white shirt and on a black skirt. By showing them on a white shirt, I wanted to show size and proportion and how they will look when worn without using a model. Furthermore, I wanted to how such pieces of art jewellery can be worn with the simplest of items in our wardrobes. You do not need to match them with couture garments. A plain old shirt will do! I typically wear my jewellery with either a solid T-shirt, this shirt here or a plain(ish) saree.
Apart from the two light weight bib necklaces that you see here, I made a parrot and rose brooch as well. It is about three inches long and can be seem in the first image in this post. This range of painted floral leather jewellery is incredibly easy to style and can uplift your look in minutes. IAll three pieces – the roses garland, the mixed flower garland and parrot brooch are available for sale.
If you make or wear art jewellery or even statement jewellery, please tell me how you you wear/style them. What is your go to outfit for them?
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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