ETRUSCAN
COLLAR
About the Kit...
Bead
weaving is a collection of hundreds of different stitching techniques
and strategies for creating pieces that approximate a piece of
cloth.
The
Ndebele stitch, sometimes called Herringbone Stitch, is a loose-knit
stitch that lends itself to many creative variations. It results
in a herringbone pattern, or zig-zag effect.
This
Etruscan Collar Necklace consists of two overlapping strips of
Ndebele Stitch, a chain embellishment, and an attached choker
clasp. The strips are overlapped so that they curve slightly along
the inner edge.
The
challenge, here for me, was to create a sophisticated, wearable,
and attractive piece that exemplified concepts about contemporizing
traditional jewelry. At about the same time I was trying
to conceptualize this piece, I had been asked to lead an 8-day
workshop on Jewelry Design in Cortona, Italy. I pretty quickly
married my design work to this teaching opportunity, and created
a workshop called “Contemporizing Etruscan Jewelry”.
Things
clicked. I found an Etruscan Collar that I immediately connected
with. See image below:
There is considerable artistry and craftsmanship underlying Etruscan
jewelry. I
began to interpret and analyze this piece. I first broke it down
in terms of its Traditional Components.
Contemporizing
Traditional Jewelry has to do with how you take
these particular traditional forms and techniques, and both add
your personal style to the pieces, as well as make them more relevant
to today’s sense of fashion and style. The challenge for the designer
is how to keep traditional ideas essential and alive for today's
audience.
Part
of the artistry of the jewelry designer has to do with the control
over color. Picking colors is about making strategic choices.
And picking Bead Colors is about understanding how the bead asserts
its needs for color.The jewelry designer must be strategic in
the placement of color within the piece. The designer achieves
balance and harmony, partly through the placement of colors. The
designer determines how colors are distributed within the piece,
and what movement and rhythm and effect result. And the designer
determines what proportions of each color are used, where in the
piece, and how.
One
set of color-theories, widely used in our Etruscan Collar, employed
to make these kinds of choices have to do with Simultaneity
Effects. Colors in the presence of other colors
get perceived differently, depending on the color combination.
In the Etruscan Collar project...
Learning
Objectives :
- Creating a design-plan for a layered bead woven necklace collar
- Strategically
selecting a color palette, especially in reference to "simultaneity
effects"
- Implementing
the Ndebele Stitch using a 4mm cube and two 2mm beads to create
two strips which will later overlap
- Reinforcing
the Ndebele strips
- Attaching and assembling two layers of Ndebele Stitched strips
using a hybrid brick stitch/ndebele stitch technique
- Weaving
in a decorative chain element along the inner boundaries of the
piece, using a bookbinding stitch
- Attaching a choker clasp assembly
- Some ideas about what it means to "contemporize" a
traditional piece of jewelry
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