In the press…

The below image was in yesterday’s The Age Good Weekend colour liftout. It stopped me in my tracks.

detail of image from The Age, Good Weekend, 6th February 2010, p21; photograph credit: Michael Thompson

Paloma Picasso’s necklace is described as: ‘a one-of-a-kind aquamarine necklace of her own design‘. Staggering crystals of sea blue. It is incredibly beautiful. The weight of it on the body would feel satisfying I imagine.

The shape of some of the chunks, especially the second and third from the bottom on the right side, reminded me of a similarly chunky neckpiece a lecturer showed us in my third year at university. He showed us a book of a female jeweller’s work, with full page images of pieces with large-scale wooden components, others with iron and string and simply worked materials, done with an exceptionally refined eye and hand.

With that in mind, and a need to make the connection and figure out who it was, I went searching for an image. It turns out it’s pretty difficult to find an image online (it isn’t in any of my books) with the only descriptors I had: wood, a pale colour but without knowing the exact tree, necklace, on string I think, northern european female jeweller (perhaps Scandinavian), maybe mid-80s but could be anything from 1970s to now!

Sadly, after a long time searching, I’ve failed to find anything to help me remember the jeweller. It’s a bit frustrating actually, so if my description is at all familiar, it would be great if you could make a suggestion as to the artist.

Anyway, back to Paloma. Her new designs for Tiffany are called ‘Zellige’ and were inspired by Moroccan tile patterns. The black pendant here is striking I think. I recognise in some contemporary jewellery circles that mass-produced and highly commercialised jewellery is not highly valued, but there is still beauty in the designs that can certainly be appreciated.

During my search though, I did find some images from a past (unrelated) exhibition that has excited me and I’ll write more about soon.

Update (9th February): Lucy has suggested that I may have been thinking about Dorothea Pruhl – she’s right! It’s so satisfying to have a mystery like that solved. I have searched online for an image of the exact necklace I was remembering, but haven’t found one. However, there are some images of her necklaces on Marzee and DesignBoom. Thanks Lucy!

Update (9th February): Also, I have found the original image that was used in the newspaper on the Tiffany website, here. I have used it in this post for critique and to connect the amazing necklace to other contemporary jewellery I’ve seen (under fair dealings).

Update (9th February): I meant to write in the original post how fascinated I am with the little peak of a silver fitting, high on the left side near her neck – the scale is suitable for the rocks it supports, and I would love to know how it fastens the neckpiece…