Coming soon from Michiel Cornelissen, "a bit cross":
With its combination of symbolical and practical strength, it’s hard to think of a situation where this pendant would not have you covered.
Recently in Jewelry Category
A new bill in the Arizona legislature seeks to establish statutory protection for the freedom to wear religious jewelry in public schools:
Students in public educational institutions may wear clothing, accessories and jewelry that display religious messages or religious symbols in the same manner and to the same extent that other types of clothing, accessories and jewelry that display messages or symbols are permitted.
It's part of a broader set of provisions designed to keep school officials from curbing overt expressions of faith in the classroom. The inspiration--the notebook pictured above. The East Valley Tribune explains:
Deborah Chambers thought it would be no big deal to display a picture of Jesus on her notebook at the Chandler charter school where she is a seventh-grader.
She didn’t think the image of a bloodied Christ on the cross was all that different from a Muslim head scarf or a Phoenix Suns logo.
“It’s important to me because that’s what Jesus did for me,” Chambers said.
She said that last October a teacher sent her to the principal’s office after a fellow student complained about the notebook, and the principal told her she could no longer bring the notebook to school.
May Heggy is an Egyptian designer who is seeking to move contemporary Egyptian jewelry beyond Pharoanic and Islamic designs that have been repeated so routinely that they arguably have become visual cliches. But that doesn't mean she is detached from myth and higher meaning--to the contrary, it permeates her work.
May Heggy believes that jewelry making, like any other form of art, reflects the artist's views, beliefs and tastes. Therefore, being interested in psychology and philosophy, she aims at portraying the dualistic nature of life in my jewelry, since it is a strong characteristic of human nature and the self. She does this by mixing precious and non-precious materials, using contrasting colors, shapes and textures as well as unsymmetric patterns. She likes to work with unusual colors and cuts of semi-precious stones.
For more, check out her website and this engaging overview in the Egypt Daily News. Above: her Infinity necklace. Below: May Heggy.
Beyonce's hit song advises commitment-phobic men that if they like it they shoulda put a ring on it.
However, there's a much older song that advises women they shouldn't be so quick to accept that ring. Here, back from the early nineteenth century, are the God-infused lyrics to "Wish I was a single girl again."
When I was single, Lord I dressed so fine
Now that I'm married, Lord, I go ragged all the time
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
Got the dishes to wash and the spring to do to
When you are married, Lord you've got it all to do
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
I got three little babies lying in the bed
One of them's so weary Lord, he can't raise up his head
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
Along comes that drunkard and he call them all a bunch of fools
So I wash their little feet and I send them off to school
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
When I was single, I ate biscuits and pie
Now that I'm married, it's eat cornbread or die
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
When I was single, marrying was all I craved
Now that I'm married, Lord, I'll go troubled to my grave
Lord, don't I wish I was a single girl again
"P.S. to Manny: The Ten Commandments religious medal and chain and my wedding ring--I wish you to present to our children as a token of our undying love."
Here in NYC last week: the latest JA NY Summer Show for the jewelry trade. One noteworthy trend--"enlightenment jewelry" is on the rise.
In pendants, sentimental pieces or "enlightenment jewelry"—those featuring religious or spiritual themes such as hamsa hands, luck talismans and zodiac symbols—were a favorite, especially among emerging designers at the show's New Designer Gallery.
Actress Shirley MacLaine offers a line of "eco-friendly" jewelry based on sacred geometry. Above: Swirl to God, an homage to the spiral:
Generally, the spiral represents a broadening of consciousness, which is the destination arrived after a long journey.
In terms of astrology, mysticism and myth the spiral translates into meanings of spirituality and rebirth.
In terms of spirituality, the spiral symbol represents the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness).
In terms of rebirth or growth, the spiral symbol represents the consciousness of nature beginning from the core or center and thus expanding outwardly. This is the way of all things, as recognized by most mystics.
This is just one of many spiritual products offered on her site, an epitome of commerce as an extension of the self. As Ms. MacLaine can affirm, there's little more rewarding than living long enough to go from outside to mainstream.
A brilliant look at jewelry & existence by Planet Fab for CITY Magazine.
Religion is in many ways a story of our relation to collective identity, which can create something higher than ourselves as well as swarms that destroy. Not surprisingly the locust plays a prominent role in ancient religious texts, more in regard to the latter aspect of the mystery than the former, though now that most of us live a life far removed from swarms of locusts devouring our crops the references might seem somewhat oblique.
Pictured above: cicada jewelry, created and sold by teen entrepreneurs Katheryn Maloney and Brady Cullinan. And from a reference by a BoingBoing commenter, be sure to scroll down this fascinating site for a story about Mayan cockroach jewelry:
There once was, I have been told, a Maya princess who fell in love with a man she would never be permitted to marry. So heartbroken was she that she wept night and day over her forbidden love. A shaman, hearing her cries and learning of her misery, transformed her into a glittering beetle, a piece of living jewelry. Her beloved pinned her to his breast. Thus she spent her life, close to the heart of the one she cherished.
Doesn't sound like much of a relationship to me, but perhaps I'm too cynical. In any event, this legend is perpetuated to the present day in Yucatán by the makech (that's Yucatec Mayan, in Spanish, it's maquech).
These large beetles spend most of their lives as larvae; their transformation into adults marks the end of their existence. Once pupated, they stop eating, breed, and die. Yucatecos decorate them with rhinestones and tether them with little gold chain leashes. Pinned to the purchaser's clothing, they spend what remains of their brief existence wandering aimlessly about, sparkling as they move.
This morning on my walk to work I noticed that the demolition of an office building had exposed a church to public view--and not just any church, but Manhattan's first Roman Catholic parish. Drawn by the sight I decided to do a walk-through. The ornamentation, the altars, the markers commemorating the history of building and craft--the place was a vivid reminder of a visual style in some ways alien to life today, but at the same time its direct antecedent.
The blend of sensory richness and spirituality reminded me of this recent article on the goldsmiths of Iraq. Gold as an expression of transformative identity has a long history there, a tradition evident not just in the Bible but in the diffusion of its iconic values throughout the globe. Which is just one more why the plight of Iraq's goldsmiths is so tragic--it's not just that the invasion led to the pillaging of ancient art; Iraq is losing the very artists whose work help gives life meaning.
Even more disturbing--the role of religious conflict in this spiritual implosion. For more on that check out the whole article; for now, a poignant reminder of one family's lost golden age:
For Walid, goldsmithing is more than a business, it is a family tradition too important to abandon.
His grandfather worked on the golden-domed Kadhimiya shrine, where Imam Musa al Kadhim and his grandson, Muhammad Taqi, revered by Shiite Muslims, are said to be buried.
His father made jewelry for the Iraqi royal family.
A faded photograph hanging above Walid's counter shows his father with the portable wooden box he used to display his wares before he opened a store in 1934 in Baghdad's most famous gold bazaar, which fills the winding alleys leading to the shrine. . . .
The jewelry sold in the Kadhimiya district is especially prized by Iraq's majority Shiites, who consider it to be a blessing from the imams buried there.
Before U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2003, the shopkeepers say, as many as 3,000 Iranians also visited the shrine every day. After offering a prayer to the imams, the pilgrims would join the bustling throngs to shop for gold.