Abstract:
We create and wear jewelry because we do not want to feel alone. But “not wanting to feel alone” can mean different things to different people. People want to feel a connection, and jewelry is an important tool or signifier for them. The jewelry designer must have insight here. The designer needs to understand what jewelry really is in order to make the kinds of successful choices about forms, materials, design elements, inspirations, techniques, arrangements, public presentations and exhibitions and the like. Why do people touch it, wear it, buy it, display it, share it, collect it? There are different frameworks, that is different types of evidence or lenses, from which the designer might draw such understanding, including the sensation of jewelry as OBJECT, CONTENT, INTENT or DIALECTIC. All these lenses share one thing in common — communication. Although jewelry can be described in the absence of communicative interaction, the designer can never begin to truly understand what jewelry really is without some knowledge about its creation and without somehow referencing the designer, the wearer, the viewer and the context.
WHAT IS JEWELRY, Really?
Simply put, we create and wear jewelry because we do not want to feel alone.
But “not wanting to feel alone” can mean different things to different people. People want to feel a connection, and jewelry is an important tool or signifier for them. The jewelry designer, in order to make the best choices and the most strategic choices throughout the process of designing a piece of jewelry, requires some detail and clarity here. What does it mean to say that we create and wear jewelry so we do not want to feel alone?
We might want to reaffirm that we are similar (or different) than someone else or some other group or culture, so that we do not feel alone. We might want to signal some connection (or disconnection or mal-connection) with a higher power or mystical source or sense of well-being or with some idea, concept or meaning, so that we do not feel alone. We might want to express an intent or feeling or emotion, so that we do not feel alone.
We might want to differentiate what it means to be yourself relative to something else, whether animate or inanimate, functional or artistic, part of a dialectic conversation with self or other. We might want to signal or differentiate status, intelligence, awareness, and resolution. We might want to separate ourselves from that which is sacred and that which is profane.
Whatever the situation, jewelry becomes something more than simple decoration or adornment. …
CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE ON THE JEWELRY DESIGNERS’ HUB
Thanks for being here. I look forward to sharing more resources, tips,
sources of inspiration and insights with you.
Warren Feld
