I have a dark secret, well actually it's glowy & bright. It makes me voyeuristic, gives me heart palpitations, & feel all rinky dinky like a cat in nip.
I love jewellery. There. I've said it.
Eeww No! Not the high street kind, I like jewellery with a past, with history, with a story to tell from ages long gone.
Old jewellery, (or even new) that looks like it has been buried in the earth for centuries.
Chipped from the churn of a plough, the metal worn in places from years of love & frequent caresses; once gifts of endearment.
Discovered as the sun kissed the ore sending shards of light out like a signalling beacon, plucked from the ground or a stream where it's lain for centuries sleeping.
I also love legends, mythology & animals so naturally I love Etruscan jewelry .
High content gold in deep yellows, Its surface often decorated with repoussé & engraved symbolic figures of an era many centuries ago .
Originally cultured in Northern Italy, the Etruscan people were astute traders .
The women wore Pendants called Bulla, often adorned with mythical figures, a style which was adopted by the Romans who used them as protective amulets.
This skill of art spread to Greece, Turkey.
Mesopotamia, Egypt & elsewhere. Crafted after years of instruction by a battle hardened atelier, a once dying art of craft making now being reintroduced.
I also love the contrast of modern, geometric jewellery. Hard steel, clean, industrious, perfect lines of masculine energy clashing with rough, uncut diamonds or perfectly cut gems bursting with feminine energy & curves to create balance, that light the way & draw your eye in.
To me jewellery isn't just about bling for shows sake. It tells me more about you than your clothes, car or hair; where you shop, what you place value in & so on. It can pull a look together & create an image that you wish to convey to the outside world; how you wish to be perceived, how you feel, your mood. It can show status & wealth, be worn as battle armour, or coordination.
Jewellery is mobile art designed to create emotion, carrying an unspoken story, a piece of history on your body, a gift of love, a memory otherwise forgotten or hidden hence the use of psychometry. Its more to the naked eye than just pretty metal for decoration.
Jewellery to me is about branding. This is who I am without me having to say a word.
And just as with friends, the best jewellery has a past & a good story to tell!