Showing posts with label Gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gold. Show all posts
May 26, 2011
Boys In Jewels part 7 - Slick Rick
Gotta love the soft voiced, London born rapper's defiance of the current vogue for minimalist accessorising.
May 2, 2011
Superfly
Designed in 1530 BC!!
Wouldn't look out of place on a catwalk today...
From the burial chamber of Egyptian Queen Ahhotep 1.
Wouldn't look out of place on a catwalk today...
From the burial chamber of Egyptian Queen Ahhotep 1.
March 21, 2011
Island Life
In all my many trips to Ibiza over the years, I never saw anything like this and I'm gutted. But perhaps I was otherwise engaged. Ahem...
Turns out it's traditional for Balearic women to attend local dances sporting 'emprendada', or jewellery that has been passed down through the generations.
The pile-it-all-on approach to wearing jewellery has long been on of my favourite looks although til now I'd limited myself to a handful of rings, a pair of earrings and a couple of bangles for fear of appearing OTT.
Having chanced across this amazing photo I feel inspired to take things to the next level. Living, as I do, in bling-loving South London I predict no-one'll even bat an eyelid.
Photo: Carmen Redonodo, 2003. Taken from Jewellery by Jack Ogden
Turns out it's traditional for Balearic women to attend local dances sporting 'emprendada', or jewellery that has been passed down through the generations.
The pile-it-all-on approach to wearing jewellery has long been on of my favourite looks although til now I'd limited myself to a handful of rings, a pair of earrings and a couple of bangles for fear of appearing OTT.
Having chanced across this amazing photo I feel inspired to take things to the next level. Living, as I do, in bling-loving South London I predict no-one'll even bat an eyelid.
Photo: Carmen Redonodo, 2003. Taken from Jewellery by Jack Ogden
August 23, 2010
Buried Treasure
Some of the oldest evidence of gold being used as ornamentation was discovered in 1972 at the Varna Necropolis in Bulgaria. Over 3000 gold artifacts were found in the graves which date back to 4600-4200 BC. 
The find showed that as well as having sophisticated religious beliefs about the afterlife, a hierarchal status based on differences to do with male superiority was already firmly in place •Sigh• What is thought to be an elite male was found buried with a huge hoard of gold trinkets including, appropriately enough, a gold penis sheath.
These cute bull-shaped gold platelets were thought to venerate virility and warfare.
May 17, 2010
By George!
The BBC are having an '80s revival at the moment so it was phones off and pizzas in for guilty tv pleasures aplenty this weekend. Top Gun on Saturday was pure testosterone with Tom Cruise variously flexing his buns in little white pants/rocking ray bans in a night club/sweatily boshing a volleyball at an oiled up Val Kilmer/shooting his missiles at sonofabitch Mig fighter pilots. People who claim there's a homoerotic subtext here don't know what they're talking about.
Last night, no subtext was needed for Worried About The Boy - a biopic about Boy George that focused on his pre-fame ambitions, his mid-80s descent into drug-n-fame hell and – most of all – his ability to seduce straight men.
In homage, here's a little snippet from my book in which dandy jeweller, and fellow Blitz Kid, Judy Blame, talks about the day he lent George some jewels for a TV appearance:
In his autobiography, ‘Take It Like A Man,’ Boy George wrote of my jewellery: 'I picked out several pieces of garish gold neck jewellery and a pair of razzle-dazzle earrings. Five minutes before we went on air I still couldn't decide what necklace to wear so I wore them all. It was the campest thing you've ever seen in your life!'
Collage courtesy of Judy Blame
Last night, no subtext was needed for Worried About The Boy - a biopic about Boy George that focused on his pre-fame ambitions, his mid-80s descent into drug-n-fame hell and – most of all – his ability to seduce straight men.
In homage, here's a little snippet from my book in which dandy jeweller, and fellow Blitz Kid, Judy Blame, talks about the day he lent George some jewels for a TV appearance:
In his autobiography, ‘Take It Like A Man,’ Boy George wrote of my jewellery: 'I picked out several pieces of garish gold neck jewellery and a pair of razzle-dazzle earrings. Five minutes before we went on air I still couldn't decide what necklace to wear so I wore them all. It was the campest thing you've ever seen in your life!'
Collage courtesy of Judy Blame
March 18, 2010
Givenchy's Gold Prize
Thought for the day: Does the fact that these babies are Givenchy Couture aw09 (and therefore officially last season) mean I can get a discount? 99% OFF should do it.
March 3, 2010
Inspired Design
Recently someone asked me what my favourite part the book-writing process was. Easy. It was learning what inspired each jeweller to be creative.
Receiving photos of finished pieces was great, but each time one of my* jewellers mailed me drawings of their work in progress, screen grabs of their sketch books or snaps of their moodbards, I’d get excited. Knots-in-the-tummy excited. It was like they’d let me in on a secret.
Having behind-the-scenes access to the creative process from start to finish helped me pinpoint each designer’s trademarks and idiosyncrasies. In turn I was able to write more sensitively about their work, which is important when you're profiling 33 people who essentially have the same job. I only hope they’ll agree when publishing day comes!
David & Martin are really into research and inspiration. Whether it’s the left over bits of a fried chicken meal, a pretty Japanese girl reading Vogue and chowing down on the tube, or the macabre tooth scene from Roman Polanski’s movie, The Tenant, these Swedish jewellers have a darkly humorous approach to design.
This is a mock up of the piece they made for the Colette exhibition
The skull in the finished piece will be 18k gold
Here's the sketch
Voila l'inspiration
All images courtesy of David and Martin
An abridged version of David's supersweet email
“The piece …. has been really interesting to work on. It made us analyze what we have been, what we are and what we want to be in the future.
Until now we have been working on kind of two different tracks. On one hand, a more futuristic and minimalistic and on the other hand a more ethnic theme with inspiration from nature, bones, animals, voodoo etc.
Our goal have for a long time been to mix this two to make it more unique, and that is what we try to do in this Colette piece!
It have become the start of something new, we call the style FAUNA FUTURA, it will be a mix of futurism and nature. It is a long story but I wanted to tell you because this process started when you invited us for the Colette exhibition so you are kind of a part of it!"
(So poetic – I get to be an inspiration to the people whose inspiration I wrote about!)
Before I overandout, congratulations to David on his new arrival – very likely his greatest creation to date!
*OK, I know they don’t belong to ME (more’s the pity) but peppering these posts with ‘the jewellers I wrote about’ or ‘the jewellers featured in my book’ could get annoying, no?
Receiving photos of finished pieces was great, but each time one of my* jewellers mailed me drawings of their work in progress, screen grabs of their sketch books or snaps of their moodbards, I’d get excited. Knots-in-the-tummy excited. It was like they’d let me in on a secret.
Having behind-the-scenes access to the creative process from start to finish helped me pinpoint each designer’s trademarks and idiosyncrasies. In turn I was able to write more sensitively about their work, which is important when you're profiling 33 people who essentially have the same job. I only hope they’ll agree when publishing day comes!
David & Martin are really into research and inspiration. Whether it’s the left over bits of a fried chicken meal, a pretty Japanese girl reading Vogue and chowing down on the tube, or the macabre tooth scene from Roman Polanski’s movie, The Tenant, these Swedish jewellers have a darkly humorous approach to design.
This is a mock up of the piece they made for the Colette exhibition
The skull in the finished piece will be 18k gold
Here's the sketch
Voila l'inspiration
All images courtesy of David and Martin
An abridged version of David's supersweet email
“The piece …. has been really interesting to work on. It made us analyze what we have been, what we are and what we want to be in the future.
Until now we have been working on kind of two different tracks. On one hand, a more futuristic and minimalistic and on the other hand a more ethnic theme with inspiration from nature, bones, animals, voodoo etc.
Our goal have for a long time been to mix this two to make it more unique, and that is what we try to do in this Colette piece!
It have become the start of something new, we call the style FAUNA FUTURA, it will be a mix of futurism and nature. It is a long story but I wanted to tell you because this process started when you invited us for the Colette exhibition so you are kind of a part of it!"
(So poetic – I get to be an inspiration to the people whose inspiration I wrote about!)
Before I overandout, congratulations to David on his new arrival – very likely his greatest creation to date!
*OK, I know they don’t belong to ME (more’s the pity) but peppering these posts with ‘the jewellers I wrote about’ or ‘the jewellers featured in my book’ could get annoying, no?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
