Land
of Odds :
Sixth Annual, 2008
The
Ugly Necklace Contest
A
Jewelry Design Competition With A Twist
...GO
VOTE & EVALUATE...
Edith
Cheitman
from Sarasota, Florida
"Song
of the Venerable Bede"
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Wearing
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POEM
Song
of the Venerable Bede
The
New Age Market has decreed
there be more Spirit in their beads.
No more sufficient, ostentation;
they now require extrapolation
From world religions to their jewelry
which tempts designers to buffoonery.
This
ugly necklace is evidence
of a bauble fraught with such mystical defense.
The
Chinese foo dog guards the wearer on her Path as she pursues
enlightenment (the crystal quartz) and further arcane power
through
Tibetan dragon and, of course, the inevitable, exotic, (this
time Moroccan) yet comfortingly familiar cross.
Carved
Buddha sighs and on his breath the eagle feather rises
through several hundred turquoise beads (perpetually spiritual
turquoise leads to absolutely no surprises.)
The
entire construct is entrusted to the grasping eagle claw
desperately snatching wisdom's pearl -- then more and more
and ever more.
To
underpin this dubious theme
and underscore the moral
the whole is strung on jagged pearls
and allegedly branch coral.
To string them neatly side by side implies
that there might be
some underlying sense or plan
but close inspection indicates that evens view with odds
while chaos helter-skelter reigns
among the loose strung gods.
And
so, to close, the ancient pearl beyond all price is gained;
through garish bead and highest price
arcane wisdom has been obtained.
And
we another season rest
whilst quoting van der Rohe
that god is in the details or --
wait -- could it be -- NO!
Is
that instead the devil there, lurking
behind each carefully wired shank?
God or devil; theologically impeccable and fair, we take
both to the bank.
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Front View
| Edith
writes..., Imagine being trapped at dinner with my
submission necklace around the neck of the woman seated
to your left. If you were constrained by good manners and
respect for your host, you would be trapped in the presence
of the unharmonious, unable to cry out for help, in a visual
environment that could curdle the pot de creme. Of course
you would talk only to the woman on your right. But what
if SHE was wearing the work by another designer from the
competition. Outer Limits, indeed. |
Close Up
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MATERIALS:
Red coral, red coral carved, hawk's claw, eagle's claw
pearls, sterling silver heishi, turquoise heishi, antique silver
beads, Tibetan turquoise, sterling and coral dragon, quartz crystal,
base metal casting of Chinese foo dog, Moroccan cross, Mother
of Pearl pendant converted into clasp.
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Clasp Assembly
Mother of Pearl Pendant, wire hook under claw, toggle ring
"I
design my jewelry so that, by wearing it, a person is
making a spiritual commitment.
The
commitment symbolized by this necklace is to willingly
subrogate the body of knowledge that one has amassed in
this life (symbolized by the free-moving sphere within
the three-taloned hawk's claw which represents human intellect)
to the Unknown (symbolized by the empty silver circle).
Once
this connection is made (by fastening the hook underneath
the claw directly to the silver circle) the body of knowledge
continues to spin separately and inviolate while the more
important connection is made to the larger universal Truth
symbolized by the double terminated crystal....
It
is also possible to fasten the necklace by putting the
hook into one of the embellishments on the mother of pearl
oval (or egg). If that connection is made it will be seen
that the body of knowledge is not engaged with the circle
in such a way as to make the configuration complete. This
is a far inferior closure (commitment) with an inferior
payoff because if the engagement of the body of knowledge
is incomplete, the person is not wholly involved in the
process and, therefore, the association with the crystal
is tangential rather than being an integral and necessarily
completing aspect of the search for Enlightenment...." |
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From Edith's blog on fabulousamulets.etsy.com....,
Central to the ugliness of the piece is its superficial insistence
on inherent beauty. After all we have here the lure of the nacrescent
pearl, the organic charm of coral, ever-reliable sterling silver
and a design which is, on first view, abolutely rhythmic in its
one by one repetition of number, size, color of element. Only
when we are lured by this initial seduction does the horror encroach
and are we able to see the evil in every pearl -- its forced malformation
,uneven development, truncated visual sweep, gnarled twists. |
...GO
VOTE & EVALUATE...
Edith
Cheitman
from Sarasota, Florida
"Song
of the Venerable Bede"
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