An inescapable fact of the universe is that all is in flux, eternally. The jeweller’s art is that of drawing one’s attention to material that retains its fixed state longer than most. This material might emerge from the ground, as gemstone or precious metal, from sand on beaches and trees on land, from the mind, as timeless form or allegory; the jeweller helps this fixed talisman find its way onto the ephemeral body.
As with igneous rocks, stories emerge from immense strains of heat and pressure, taken as raw material for humans to impress their ideas upon. Stories constitute the key material I draw a wearer’s attention to, taking John Bunyan’s 1678 allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress as my point of departure for this project. Scenes evoked by the book can be found nestled amongst silver and bronze, saw pierced in metal or fired in vitreous enamel, all viewed through lenses cut from stone.
The choice of narrative is inextricably linked to the forms the pieces take. Bold lines and settings play on the “straight and narrow” path the pilgrim must take towards the “Celestial City”. Necklaces referencing votive crowns and rosary beads point to the problems and contradictions of faith (in both Christianity and the modernist spirit it spawned), and ‘cabochons’ appropriated from medieval jewellery distort, fracture and colour the scenes beneath, referencing the countless works of literature, art and more that take Bunyan’s tale and transform it into something new.
The use of ulexite allows stories to be conveyed in a manner not dissimilar to their dissemination in online spaces. Not traditionally used for jewellery due to its fragility, I have devised a treatment which allows for its optical properties to be worn without fear of degradation. Ulexite allows for the creation of a second ‘phantom’ image, an effect of the light passing through the stone. The image is projected from the bottom facet to the top as light travels through tiny needle-like crystals (natural ‘fibre optics’) and sections of the image constantly move in and out of focus; attempts to see the complete picture clearly are futile.
In the Blakean tradition, I have drawn on ‘visions’ to illustrate the Pilgrim’s Progress from my perspective, as I sit between infinitely forking future paths and the linear course of my life up to this point (a sentiment captured by Jorge Luis Borges’ 1941 short story The Garden of Forking Paths). The illustrative choices and references to the tree of life hark back to Christianity’s pagan roots, another example of the mutability that permeates everything from religion to individual lives. As stories and lives morph endlessly around us, this collection ascertains a point at which paths diverge endlessly and one must inevitably be taken, solid talismans in swirling flux.
