Another cold, but sunny morning. I have just walked around the frosty field, trying to order my thoughts for the day’s work ahead. It has been a busy few weeks since my last blog and for my second I wanted to follow on from where I left: ‘my Greek journey’. The visit to the museum was accompanied in the weeks since by more reading and listening to audio books on the same theme. The Greek heroes, stories and gods are everywhere in my head. I studied the various photos I took, the books I bought and already had and I thought that in this blog I want to show what all this has resulted in so far.
So, how does a piece come into being? What is my process for translating an inspiration, an idea into a piece? I will try to explain this by following the design and making journey of my new Elpis brooch.
Inspiration
Going in my mind through the rooms of the British Museum once more, recalling the pieces I saw in the cases, the books as well as other archaeological artefacts, I was trying to distil what so captured my imagination. It was most obviously the patterns on the vases, the stories, but it was also something else. It was this magical connection between a ceramic shard – found under layers of soil, showing half a pattern of a once beautiful vase, retelling the story of a mythical Greek hero perhaps – and its finder or viewer. It is this shard – this tangible eye-witness to a past so long ago – that allows the imagination of the viewer to connect with this past, to travel back in time and to immerse oneself in the stories of imagined lives lived long ago.
But even more, I think it is especially this shard, this broken part of something once-whole, this half-pattern, this hint of a story – now lost – painted on the vase that inspires the imagination. What was the vase like as a whole? What figure was painted there? What story was it trying to tell? These are the things I think are magical about the pieces I saw and these were the elements I was trying to use in my work.
Brief
To focus the mind deadlines always help to get things done. A call for submissions for an exhibition entitled Meanings and Messages by the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (ACJ) seemed the perfect opportunity to focus my ideas and design / make a brooch which would hopefully also become the starting point for this year’s collection.
Design Process
With all the above in mind I started by drawing patterns and shapes. This process is usually free and just ‘happens’. What emerged, were rounded, irregular shapes with Greek-inspired golden patterns. The idea of the accidental, the damaged, the half-lost pattern fascinated me.
Thinking about the brief of ‘Meanings and Messages’ I wanted to include something subtle, a message not immediately visible but upon closer inspection revealing a story and endowing meaning to the piece.
One of the Greek characters I was particularly fond of was Eos, ‘rosy-fingered goddess of dawn’. I was drawn to her tragic love story with the mortal Tithonus and liked her depiction as bringing with each sunrise to mankind a sense of hope, renewal and the possibility for a new beginning.
After some deliberation I felt, however, this was somewhat too subtle and chose instead the more well-known spirit of Elpis, the spirit of Hope. She was amongst other spirits in a jar given by Zeus to Pandora. When Pandora opened the jar, all the evil spirits escaped into the world. Elpis alone remained trapped in the jar when - in horror and despair at what she had done – the lid was hastily closed.
Whilst interpretations differ, I like the depiction of Elpis as a young woman, bearing flowers, the hopeful bringer of spring and renewal. Whilst no longer relying on benevolent gods for our fortunes, it is still Hope for a better world and Hope for things to heal and improve that often drives us forward in this world.
These were the thoughts I was hoping to impart in the piece and specifically in the patterns on the front of the piece. Developing the initial ideas led to further drawings and the final design I settled on (images below).
The golden shapes were meant to be like an accidental sample of a continuing pattern in the stylised shape of blossoms with the barely visible lettering of ELPIS underneath, inviting questions as to the meaning of the word and the whole piece.
I wanted the main part of the brooch to be rounded, curved and irregular, reminiscent of a ceramic shard found in an archaeological dig. Thinking about the piece functioning as a brooch, I wanted the structure to be part of the design and opted for holding the ‘shard’ in a setting, similar to the frame in which a ceramic shard may be held or displayed in a museum cabinet. This also allowed me to use the frame as a structure to hold the brooch pin mechanism securely.
Construction
I started by making the silver ‘shard’ with the gold pattern and stamping the letters ELPIS into the silver. Getting the size and shapes of the gold leaf shapes and positioning them correctly was paramount to the design. Once on the silver, the gold pieces could not be changed (other than starting again, of course). The gold was applied in the Keum-Boo technique. See here for more info on the technique.
Making the frame to hold the shard was next, followed by making the pin mechanism and the prongs to hold the shard in place. There are many ways to make a pin mechanism. I wanted a hinged mechanism, made entirely from silver and therefore opted for a slightly heavier pin thickness. The pin was also to have a pin rest at the front of the hinge and was to be restricted in its opening movement to 90°. Once made, the components were soldered onto leaf-shaped plates on the back of the frame.
When making the prongs I needed to consider their position as well as the curvature of the shard. This required the making of small steps within the prongs to securely hold the shard on the frame. When all was finished I set the shard onto the frame and riveted the pin into the hinge mechanism. Below are some images of the finished piece.
I was really happy with the result and felt that I had managed to capture some of the magic the Greek artefacts hold for me. It remains to be seen whether the piece will be chosen for the exhibition. Fingers crossed! In any case, it was a good starting point and I have since made further pieces on the same theme.