colombo jewellery is art too exhibiton

I been making trays/wooden  boxes that I designed to display my boyfriends gifts for before the wedding. These were made to fit the gifts that I bought for him.I realised I can use them as the base for my jewellery display.

I pinned the jewellery with office pins onto the red sari,however the jewellery looked to flat so I now have to find some other way of displaying the jewellery with having it look like a gift.

I chose to use red,symbolically red is the colour used for weddings,represents love,the bribes outfit is red,when shes married she uses a red bindee and red powder call sindoor on the centre path of her hair

Colombo,jewellery is art too exhibition

My plan for my display for the Jewellery is art too exhibition that will be held at Colombo tea and coffee on Gale street,is to display my jewellery in a way so that it creates an indian atmosphere so that the viewers get some sort of understanding of the mehndi theme of my jewellery. My display needs to look atistic because its not just about the look of the jewellery its about its play of art. My jewellery needs to connect with  my display.I feel its needs to look like a dowry from the grooms family to the brides family.The tradition about the dowry is the gifts that the brides usually would wear on her wedding day, they would send the brides sari and blouse and underskirt,usually red and her jewellery,underwear,shoes,handbag. These are well displayed,the idea if the gift is to be visible so that everyone around her can see her status,how much she is worth because of the value of her dowry.This is wrapped in celophane plastic in clear or a very light transparent colour so it is see-through like the examples below

pictures from http://www.etawau.com/HTML/Culture/MalayWedding/MalayWedding.htm

Looking at the space we are displaying our jewellery,its quite dark. There are many windows which bring in natural light, however our exhibition will take place later parts of the evening on the 5th october 2011,so iI have to come up with some sort of plan for lighting.

For lighting im thinking of using clay lamps which does tie in with the eastern approach to the display,having many small oil lamps will brighten up the display area,using scented oil that has oriental fragrance may work to get rid of the smell of coffee being manufactured. I also need to fill the lamps with oil when they are burnt away and keep having to light the wicks when they blown off.

arabic gold bracelet

when designing the bracelet,it seemed as though it would be firm when its bent up into its bangle form,however it felt fragile and bent easily.In the future if I happen to make this piece again or something similar I would make a inner sleeve,or outside frame to give it more stability.It was my first time gold plating and I think it worked quite well, I realised if you plate many times and for a shorter period the plateing looks better and it probably last longer

arabic gold bracelet

I explored this pattern in many ways trying to you bits and pieces and in the process got designs for possible spin offs.

I included forging to give the metal the texture of mehndi being squashed out the cone.used wire in different shapes and thicknesses to give it differnt dimesions of mehndi aplied with thick lines and thin lines.

arabic gold bracelet

looking at Arabic patterns from a mehndi pattern book called Nikhar :Arabic and traditional present-day mehandi designs.This book includes designs of tatoos and bindees.My idea is to use this pattern shown above to create a piece of jewellery,not sure on what it could be.I think it makes sence becoming some sort of hand or arm jewellery because the pattern is drawn on the wrist and looks it could represent a bangle or bracelet.I want it to be flat,not to have any hieght or different layers, all must be one layer just like the way mehndi is applied

My mum on her wedding day

 mums mehndi was so beautiful,had a branch sort of pattern running all the way down the front and back of the palm.Relating to the henna encyclopedia, mum uses the fishbone pattern,although now that pattern has transformed and used in many ways,before this was the standard way the pattern was used.To see other uses of this pattern,check The Henna page

 mums forehead was decorated with red liquid dots, now most brides use the stick on bindis that are easier to peel off and stick on to skin and they are highly decorated with rinestones and beads that make it look more attractive when the bride is on stage and the light reflects of the shiny bindis, below is a picture of the bindis I bought from the Sunday TimesEastern Bridal fair thet was held in August

Shanal Ramlall is a jewellery artist that worked with similar jewellery forms like the one my mum is wearing.
The word “Hathphul” translates directly to “Flower for the Hand” this specific ornament is worn by an Indian bride for the purpose of adornment. “the ornament literally bridges the gap between bracelet and finger rings with delicate gold chains” (Krishnan- 1999).

The henna page

http://www.hennapage.com/

http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/mastersessay/index.html

This Henna page website is owned by Catherine Cartwrite Jones,she has been a henna artist and researcher since 1990,most of the information on the website is her own work.She has also done her masters in liberal studies on developing guidelines on henna: a geological approach.Most of my primary research is gained from this website.

these are some of the designs and their meanings

the patterns resemble plants,fruits,ancient symbols that have been past on through the ages from one generation to another,geometric shapes,deity impressions(flower ans petal shapes)they are appropriate for given celebrations or happy occcasions such as diwali,weddings,births,etc.The most common patterns found are lotus flowers,paisley,vines and peacocks.