a gem in the desert

  by Adi Cloete

Today’s blog shares a glimpse of my visit to the amazing Islamic Art Museum, in Doha, Qatar. Apart from seeing my friends and spending a night in the desert :) it was one of my highlights. 

Not only does the collection within the walls of this museum fascinate, but the building itself is an architectural landmark of the Middle East.

It was designed by the well-known I.M.Pei, often referred to as a master of modern architecture, and also responsible for the design of the glass pyramid of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Pei was 91 when he was asked to design the Islamic Art Museum for Doha. To gain inspiration he embarked on a cultural journey across the Middle East, India and even China to grasp the essence of Islamic architecture.

He proposed that the museum is built on a stand-alone man-made island in the sea about 60m off Doha’s Corniche, surrounded by a park, to ensure that it would never be encroached by future buildings. The structure of the museum combines modern and traditional Islamic themes and represents a bridge between past and present, East and West. 

View from the museum to Doha's Corniche

The main building has a high domed atrium, which is concealed from the outside. At the top of the atrium the light is captured by an oculus and reflected as patterned light within the dome.

The structure of the museum is such that the desert sun transforms the building into a play of light and shadow.

When you finally make it to the various collections exhibited, one is transported into a world of detail, pattern and amazing craftsmanship. 


A few of the treasures to be seen. 

The gem encrusted falcon seen above is from India (c.1640) and is made with gold, enamel, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and onyx. 
The little wine cup is also from India(1605- 1627)and carved from emerald!!with gold & enamel. 
The huqqa base (India 1700) was carved from jade (nephrite)with lapis lazuli, ruby and gold inlay.

Basin from Syria (1240-1260). Brass with silver inlay.

Glass bottle from Iran (9th - 10th century) , ceramic tiles and a mirror (back detail) from Iran (16th century) made from steel.

Two new members to the fine ounce team by Frieda

 

I want to introduce Meagan and Gela as two new facets to fine ounce. 

Their works show great detail although both of them approach their craft in completely unique ways. You can look forward to the next fine ounce exhibition in September.   

Meagan – quirky things carved from wax

I started out with pencils and paint brushes and pursued painting and drawing relentlessly for most of my life, biting the bristle (as I am not the academic sort) to get my Master of Fine Art Degree at Rhodes University in the year of our Lord 1990… My education continued to a far greater degree when setting out from my rural protestant hometown in the Eastern Cape across the seas to what seemed a completely different and fascinating world (which happened to be on the same planet), namely Europe. After submersing myself in every possible cultural and sensual experience I could, I returned home quite a different person. 

 

I realized at this point that I needed to take on the challenge of career and money as strange as the whole system appeared, and so began my long relationship with jewellery manufacture. After a grueling but productive apprenticeship with David Bolding in Cape Town I chose to pursue a more creative angle to jewellery making and set up my small studio at my home in Muizenberg. 

 Trying to marry business and creativity has been a bit like trying to mix water and oil - a Sisyphean task, and to my dismay for others it seems as easy as riding a bicycle.

The other less arduous challenge I face is that I see the potential for subject matter and creativity everywhere, even amidst the mass-produced, plastic paraphernalia of western culture. This synthetic debris requires only a little tweaking and restructuring, and wonders occur, a bit like plastic surgery on the cheap. Then there is the stupendous beauty of the natural landscape and all it magnificent plants and creatures, real and mythological. Add to this art history and imagination. It is very difficult staying focused on one particular thing when there is so much to explore and experience. Thank goodness for the small dose of Calvinist conditioning I have been subjected too, making me appreciate that everything has it’s place even the seemingly unpleasant or absurd.

 

The context where I have managed to remain tenacious is in the arena of wax carving. Objects carved are then cast into metal by means of a “lost wax” process. The fascination with detail has held my attention from the very beginning of my rendezvous with jewellery making and for the most part I do what I do for the love of wax.

Angela- and the meticulous craft

I, Angela (Gela) Tölken, am of German descent and was born in 1981, in Windhoek, Namibia.

In 2000 I moved to Stellenbosch, South Africa, to study Creative Jewellery Design and Metal Techniques at the University of Stellenbosch, graduating with my Masters in Arts in March 2006.

I currently live and work in Stellenbosch as a free-lance art jeweller and a part-time staff member of the Division for Creative Jewellery Design and Metal Techniques of the Visual Arts Department, University of Stellenbosch. Throughout my studies I was particularly interested in the creative process as a means of self-expression – a fascination which continues to determine the focus of my creative practice at present. I tend to create my jewellery with all my heart and soul, the pieces inevitably telling stories about me in the end. 

My work reveals my fascination with texture, pattern, rhythm, movement, contrasts, systems and nature. My personal style inevitably includes the use of strong, clear and simple lines, fine detail, colour, contrast and repetition. Labour-intensive processes usually constitute the bulk of my visual vocabulary and the structure of my creative practice is meticulous, deliberate (if not choreographed) and incremental to the point of "coralline accretion"(Nic Dawes in Edmunds, P. Aggregate. Paul Edmunds & Joao Ferreira Gallery. 2008.)

Being involved in the entire process of designing, conceptualizing, testing and then making a piece is a highly fulfilling, albeit at times distressing, experience. I design and produce my pieces myself and only create a piece once. All works are manufactured entirely by hand, usually over a period of several days or even weeks. My pieces, if not the work processes themselves, definitively reveal my obsessiveness as well as my firm belief in immaculate craftsmanship. 

I find enormous joy in closely observing fine details - marvelling at textures, compositions and patterns. Usually I feel compelled to touch them, trying to take them in with all of my senses. These instances of noting the inherent beauty in something always constitute moments of wonder and surprise, moments I consider to be ‘soul food’.

For me there is nothing more nurturing than being in nature, especially in remote places. Wide, apparently empty and silent expanses with nobody there (except perhaps for a few very close and special people) quite literally provide my soul with the space it needs to fully be, and to take flight.

Hiking the un-trodden slopes of the Cederberg or the Brandberg, experiencing the magic of Namibia’s arid south, its deserts and the Damaraland, taking in light changes of magnificent sunsets and sleeping under stars are priceless for me.

Gemstones and gibberish...

By: Adeline Jubi

Gemstones have always been a passion of mine, can’t resist them, like tools. I usually start planning a jewellery piece by finding the gemstone first.

Amethyst ring, Pink Tourmaline Ring, Diamond ring; Brandy Quartz ring; Garnet red gold ring.

I do apologize in advance because I might step on a few toes here, but I’m not a great believer in the metaphysical properties of gemstones.  I am, however a great believer in the placebo effect. If you want something to have a certain effect or function and you really believe in it, it might actually work. It’s like religion, it has the power to mobilise people or make them feel slightly better about themselves and their circumstances. It’s the way our psyche was designed to work; we need to believe in something bigger than us to justify the banality and unfairness we see around us.  How else does a beggar with leprosy in India, keep going. He believes that he is going to be reincarnated as a rich man in his next life.

Tanzanite & diamond earrings; Pearl earrings; Landscape Agate and Smokey Quartz earrings.

 Coming back to my point about gemstones and their metaphysical properties. One thing that you see everywhere and intelligent people are falling for it, are Baltic amber beads or some fake amber coloured resin beads, that loads of people put around their baby’s necks... supposed to help with teething. It reminds me of people in earlier times that hung garlic around their necks to ward off evil spirits or vampires. Are they not more scared that the poor child is going to strangle instead of easing or breezing through teething? I for one would have been even crankier if I had to deal with an irritating orange collar on top of molars half the size of my head coming through my delicate gums. There is no scientific proof that amber beads work for pain control during teething. I know the resin is supposed to be absorbed through the skin and Amber is supposedly a good antiseptic, but I can’t help to feel that someone is making lots of money by selling stuff to desperate and sleep deprived parents. You get a few believers to tell their friends that it really works and they tell a few more and voila! You have a roaring business. Some mommies just think that it looks really cool around their baby’s necks and if it helps for teething, it’s a bonus...  Anything for babies is BEEG Business. In my opinion, the only thing that really works for teething pain is medication. It’s probably rather un PC to say that I medicate my children (when needed), but what do you do if you have a headache? Do you take a pill or do you hang beads around your neck. It has been scientifically proven over many, many years that pain medication works for pain. Yes, I agree that there might be a small margin for the placebo effect, just like the beads, but it just comes to show that it all depends on you perspective and what you believe in. Just look at the mess we’re in because of some people’s totally ungrounded belief that Rhino horn is an aphrodisiac.

A cool trick, if you want to test if your baby’s amber teething beads or your grannies Amber brooch is real Amber. Take a needle and heat it up in a candle, now touch the amber somewhere inconspicuous, not  in the middle on top where a burn mark is going to ruin the piece, maybe inside a drill hole in case of a bead. Now touch the amber and smell...

If you smell pine needles, you have the real deal, if you smell Barbie doll, well you’ve been taken for a ride.

Precious Puzzles

Whether it be jewellery making or mosaicing, both are a combination and an assembly of small pieces whether they be engineered components out of precious metal or handcut pieces of glass and mirror. Proportions and functionallity have to be considered in both to gaurantee that the end product result in something beautiful.




Six Little Dickie Birds

As a jeweller I am fascintated by detail, colour and design and the combining of these elements into a pleasing aesthetic whole has led me to explore mosaicing techniques.



Flaming Firepetals Mirror

 I am intrigued by how the small pieces make up the big picture. As with pixels and puzzles, there is always the perfect piece. As a sideline I have created a range of mirrors and mosaics in which hints of colour compliment the silvery reflectiveness and allow the detail to take centre stage.



Lovebird Mirrors

As with my jewellery where each piece is hand made with the mosaicing I handcut all the mirror and
tiles to ensure a quality pattern and picture.

Lotus Leaf Mirrors

It`s only glass                                                 by Maike Valcarcel

When I tell a client that these necklaces are made out of glass beads

I often get the reply: oh, it`s only glass. Then why is it so expensive?

This is why:

They have history! Some of them are thousands of years old,

some have travelled and changed hands more than we can even imagine, some took lot of skill and time to make, some were used as money, some were traded against gold, slaves and ivory,  some have supernatural powers.

They are a microcosm of historical and cultural information.

They are beautiful! 

Millefiori beads – the technique was invented in the first millennium A.D. in Asia, and then revived in Venice about 400 years ago and to go into detail about the process would fill a couple of pages….

Left: Naga beads from the Naga tribe in India

Middle: Egyptian beads: these turquoise, lapis and carnelian beads were found in Egyptian tombs and could be around 2000 years old. The bone pendant is a symbol for fertility.

Right :“Fake coral” – I got these beads from Jemen. They are a substitute for those who couldn`t afford the real corals

Wind trade beads:  up to 500 years old, coming from India and were shipped to Africa by Chinese, Indian and Arabic merchants, who sailed with the monsoon winds

A new version of millefiori bead- not quite the same!

Do you still think this is only glass?

in the eye of the beholder

by Adi Cloete

left: Rene Magritte 'The False Mirror"

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.  ~Gilbert Keith Chesterton

As someone in a creative career,one has to consider 'beauty' on a regular basis... 

one's own ideas about beauty, but also creating beautiful things based on other peoples perceptions of beauty. 

A few years ago I made this ring, not intentionally for me, but it has ended up on my finger.  Happily. 

Its a swivel ring with the words 'create' and 'beauty' on either side.I love it because it says a lot about me and how I see that what I do.

create/beauty ring by Adi Cloete (Firepetals) 

Beauty inspires and bring lightness to the heart. BUT as the saying goes: 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

And one person's ecstasy could be another's nightmare.
Beauty is personal and relative.

Eye Miniature Brooch. Anonymous. Watercolour on ivory. Tears made out of diamonds. 1790-1810

"bright eyes" by ElaineCK   www.elaineck.com

In certain creative expressions I think the creation of un- beautiful things can still be tolerated (or ignored), but there are a couple of things that cannot be forgiven.

Using a natural resource and making it into something horrid should not be allowed.Wood and stone cannot be melted down like jewellery made from precious metals, where at least the metal can be re-used.

And then there are 2 other genres that often produce some challenging moments for me: bad ceramics and architectural monsters.

So keep an eye out: creating beauty should be handled responsibly, as far as possible!

Rainbow Eye by ThErEaLDoLLyFrikka, Eye of time brooch by Dali & I dream of Freedom by loopyluv

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.  ~Chinese Proverb

Short courses with Frieda

Last weekend I held the first Tricks workshop at my studio in Roodebloem rd. This one was a three hour workshop on seamed tubing. I wanted to take a lot of photos to share with you but then I got so wrapped up in the course that I completely forgot. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to do more of these courses. There are so many amazing techniques, so there will be more Tricks workshops in the future.

  

Twice already I held a weekend setter course concentrating on tube and swiss setting. The next setters course will be on the weekend of the 26^th-27^th of May.

Apart from that there are so many techniques, like anticlastic raising, repossage, engraving, riveting and many more, I would like to explore myself.

Once I gained some experience I will pass it on.