This suite was created as the central set for the Legendary Collection which I had created for my Final Major Project during my Foundation Diploma in Art & Design. The entire collection’s suites were centred around and inspired by various Greek Mythological personas and the legends surrounding them.
This particular set was inspired by the Greek goddess Hera, who was goddess of the sky and married women. She was also seen as the Queen of the gods, married to her brother Zeus, King of the gods.
Every depiction of Hera is one of a young, beautiful, fair-haired maiden and so this affected the design in a particular way. The design had to be of a particular delicacy. The pieces were designed with an air of daintiness and simplicity within them. The whiplash curve motifs surrounding every piece are symbolic of the clouds that Hera supposedly ruled over from high above Mount Olympus.
A slight deviation in the design of the ring gives the set a certain weight. Given that Hera was goddess of the married women and was a married woman herself it seemed only fitting to create a ring similar to the traditional wedding band, with an added twist or two. Literally. The simple split around the front of the shank enabled me to twist the two ends into a three dimensional version of the curves found in the rest of the suite. The folds also serve as a setting for the small pearl.
An addition which I found interesting to include in this set are the two hair pins with slight variations of the same design.
The entire set is made of brass, because it is a material that contains very similar properties to silver while being quite cheaper. It also has a beautiful warm golden colour when polished. The added warmth in the colour of the material holds well with the idea of a contemporary version of an Ancient Greek artefact.
The finishing element to this set was the addition of white pearls and Swarovski crystals providing an added air of elegance. The pearls also help convey the idea of clouds as when the light reflects onto them the result is a small haze around the piece adding to the lightness of the design.
The following legend is the one that inspired this suite.
Although Zeus was married to Hera, he frequently had other women behind her back. One such woman was Io. One day, fearing Hera’s jealousy, Zeus turned Io into a beautiful white cow and produced a layer of clouds which shrouded the Earth and blocked Hera’s view from Mount Olympus. When Hera saw this she grew suspicious and, after ordering the clouds away, she descended to Earth to find Zeus standing next to the bovine creature. Zeus explained that he had only just found the animal and thus Hera asked him to gift it to her. Zeus had no other choice but to oblige and unwillingly gave up his love to his wife.
To keep the two apart Hera devised a plan: she would have Argus, the hundred eyed creature, keep watch over Io. Having 100 eyes meant that the creature could sleep while having some of his eyes open providing a constant watch. Zeus grew desperate to free his love and sent Hermes to deal with the situation. Hermes went down to Earth and after coaxing the creature to allow him to sit next to him, Hermes began talking and talking monotonously which put the creature to sleep. Once Argus’ eyes were all closed Hermes killed the beast and set Io free. In tribute to Argus, Hera took the eyes of the monster and placed them onto the feathers of her favourite bird found on the same island which Argus inhibited – the peacock.
Having just previously learned the fretting technique at school I was excited to create a design which could centre around this technique. The necklace, earrings and hairpin all take the form of a metallic peacock feather, with the earrings and the hairpin set with a blue drop shape gem at the centre, representing the eye of the feather. In addition the hairpin holds a natural peacock feather sourced from an overseas company that stocks conflict free peacock and ostrich feathers.
Additionally, the bangle and ring are set with a glass bead in peacock blue which again represents the eye of the feather. A choker also set with a peacock blue glass bead was created as part of this suite. The bangle and the choker also contain a small motif representing the shape of the feather. The choice of glass bead was made because of the way in which light reflects on the material and when exiting the bead, the light creates different hues of green and purple which are also naturally found in the feather.
This set was again created in brass, not just because it was cheaper than other materials but the particular colour of the metal was very similar to that of the upper part of the feather.
This one off piece was inspired by both the previous two sets. Being that Hera was a Queen, it stands to reason that she had a crown or tiara. Through the research I had carried out I found that it was more likely, if Hera had been an actual person, for her to have had a circlet tiara rather than a coronet or a crown. The fact that circlet tiaras are also growing in popularity among brides meant that designing a circlet tiara would make it both contemporary and based on historicism.
Again the piece is made in brass, complementing both previous sets. The central stone is a blue glass bead such as the ones used in Hera’s Pride and the pearls and white crystals decorating the rest of the tiara are connected to the first suite. Also the swirls around the front of the headpiece are designed similarly to those of the same set.
The stem of the tiara extends towards the back of the head, intended to be worn just above the ears. The thickness of the rod used is just enough to hold the piece in place while being thin enough to be hidden by the wearer’s hair – even short hair.
This set was inspired by Persephone herself.
While creating this design I felt that I had to find a balance between the innocence and beauty of the goddess considered to be the bringer of spring and life and the dark sensuality, elegance and royalty that is the Queen of the underworld and the wife of Hades, which is why I came up with a colour scheme that includes silver. I felt that this was a good contrast to the Hera suite who was the other Queen among the gods. The red beads represent the spring flowers which Persephone was considered to bring and take. Red is also the colour associated with the underworld and finally the change in colours within the beads when the light catches them is reminiscent of the pomegranate seeds which Persephone ate to seal her fate.
Contrasting again with the Hera suite, this suite is more geometric and simplistic. The shape of the ring is also an abstract version of the shape of the pomegranate.
The legend which inspired this design is as follows,
It is said that Persephone had a number of affairs whenever Hades was away. In Ancient Greece, Hades was seen as the place where all the dead departed to after their life on land ended. They believed that a path existed between Earth and Hades which was guarded by a three headed dog, and one which no one could return to Earth from unless permitted by Hades himself. As such any men Persephone had visit her in the underworld would not be able to return, which is why she found a secret path, one which her husband had no knowledge of and one which no human would be able to find accidently. The path would also enable her visitors the possibility of returning safely to Earth. Persephone that this path should be marked in a particular way which she did by placing pearls along the path for the visitors to follow, with the last one being worn by her at all times.
The first thing which affected my design was the colour. I felt that, because it was something pertaining to the underworld, white or light coloured pearls would not create the feel necessary. Through research I found that the movie Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief depicted the pearls as black orbs with pearl highlights, this was a great starting point however I wanted this to be the overall colour scheme of the piece and not just that of the pearls. I managed to find a shop which could create a unique non-toxic water based mixture for me to use on the piece.
The design is literal visualisation of the two paths which could lead to Persephone, represented by the pearl at the centre of the piece. The rod represents the straightforward path taken by every dead soul to Hades, the thickness denotes the ease with which one can see the path: it was known to be there by everyone and so very noticeable. The swirl symbolises Persephone’s secret path, which when seen at the side (from the front of the piece) is less noticeable than the rod, more secretive. Both paths lead to the underworld where one can find Persephone denoted by the pearl at the centre. This design is used for the necklace and for the earrings on a slightly smaller scale.
The bracelet is created from three identical swirling links set with an identical pearl atop the central link. The ring was created by two shanks with a pearl set between them and a hole drilled into the topmost shank to allow a view of the pearl underneath.
The goddess that inspired this design is, first and foremost, the goddess of the moon and the hunt. She is also the goddess of women in labour and contradiction. While designing the pieces I decided to forego the connection to childbirth which the goddess had and instead focused on the hunt and the moon. I also wanted to attempt to introduce the idea of contradiction within the design.
The combination seen here was inspired by a picture that I saw of the goddess leaping while on a hunting spree and pictured in front of a large full moon, and this immediately provided me with an idea of how to place the arrow and the moon within the same piece. The arrow is splayed to signify speed and the arrow flying through the air. The moon was drawn in a crescent rather than a full moon because I felt that the piece would be too large, visually if the moon was a circle. Making the moon a crescent also has the added benefit of the necklace having a larger weight on one side and provides an interesting tilt while worn.
I was still trying to create a visual representation of contradiction within the design when I realised that it might be hard for the wearer to differentiate between the arrow and the moon. In the end it was the realistic textures of the two inspirational sources which provided the solution to both problems. While a moon, from Earth is seen as something smooth and luminous, a hunting arrow is rougher. By scratching the shape of the arrow out of the overall piece, the two shapes became easier to distinguish, especially when the moon was then polished to high shine. The contrast between the two shapes also resulted in creating a contradiction. Jewellery is seen as something flawless and shiny, the texture of the arrow is the complete opposite.
The piece was created in aluminium. This decision was made because the piece was entirely created out of a sheet with no need to solder, therefore any metal could be used. Additionally, aluminium was easy to cut into the shape I wanted and could be finished to achieve a high polish.
This is another suite inspired by a persona rather than a legend, in this case, Poseidon.
Poseidon is famously known as the god of the sea, but he is also god of earthquakes. Given that science has proven that tsunamis are caused by earthquakes it seems logical that the Greeks would associate both with this god.
The first piece to be created in this suite was the bangle, which was originally a test piece for a previous school task and then remade for this collection. It was created in a wave motif reminiscent of the Greek meander enclosed within a frame, all cut out of the same sheet of metal.
The necklace and the earrings were then created with rods forged into a similar design.
The suite was created in brass for a number of reasons, firstly and as mentioned before the warmth of the colour of the metal reminded me of Ancient Greek artefacts, secondly it was a material that was readily and cheaply available at the time of the project and being a student this was as important to me as the final outcome, thirdly the colour of the brass complemented the colour of the gems I had chosen extremely well and provided reflections which enhanced the pearls and crystals naturally. This would have been even greater if had had the opportunity of using real sapphires or tourmalines rather than flat back crystals.
The gems are perhaps the most important feature of this piece. While choosing the gems I focused on the circular and spherical shapes which would represent bubbles climbing to the surface. In addition to that, I wanted a variety of blue colours as the sea is not made up of just one colour. This also applies to the translucency of the water, in just one spot the water can have a whole plethora of colours and also vary in how opaque or not it is. The end decision was Swarovski crystals in a royal blue colour with seemingly purple undertones and powder blue pearls which have glittering hints of green hues when the light reflects off them.
This particular suite was inspired by both a persona and a legend surrounding her.
The goddess Demeter was the protector of the harvest and nature, and was also the mother of Persephone. Legend has it that one day, while the young Persephone was out frolicking in a field the god of the underworld, Hades, noticed her and her beauty and immediately fell in love with the young immortal. However, instead of attempting to woo her, Hades simply reached up and snapped Persephone from the field and took her down to the underworld where he made her his wife and, subsequently, Queen of the underworld.
Demeter grieved for her daughter and, as a result, the land started experiencing incredible cold spells and Zeus was forced to intervene by sending Hermes down to the underworld to bring Persephone back. However, this proved impossible as Persephone had eaten 5 pomegranate seeds and as such could not simply return as whoever ate in the underworld could not return to the land of the living.
Zeus intervened yet again with a solution. Persephone would be allowed to travel between the two worlds. For seven months a year Persephone would return to her mother and she would spend the remaining 5 in the underworld. Although she accepted, Demeter would grieve again for 5 months, letting the cold and rain take over the Earth. According to legend this is how the seasons were established.
To me, this legend centres around change and transitions, and has a strong connection with nature. These were all things I considered while creating this design. The two leaves on either side of the necklace represent the goddess’ command over nature while the braids connecting them represent the annual transition of the weather. The central rod holding them all together drops towards the middle to hold three pearl drops surmounted by white Swarovski crystals representing the tears Demeter shed every winter.
This suite was inspired by the Greek goddess of war, Athena.
While researching inspirational sources for this set, I came across chainmaille jewellery and all the wonderful forms it can take. I wanted to create something inspired by armour, however I was more inspired by the art of chainmaille rather than metal plate armour. Here I used the brass as an enhancement to the piece much in the same way I used pearls and crystals in the other pieces rather than as the main structure of the piece.
The shapes chosen represent a spear and arrows which were common fighting instruments in Ancient Greece.
This suite was inspired by the Greek goddess of love.
Because of this, it proved quite difficult to design this set as I did not want to simply create a heart shaped pendant which is something a bit over-done in the jewellery world, however being the most iconic motif associated with love it would be foolish to simply decide not to use it.
Eventually, I decided to combine the heart motif and the infinity sign, by transforming one half of the infinity sign into a heart, thus also symbolizing the coming together of two hearts. Aesthetically, I thought it more interesting to make one half of the heart slightly smaller than the other rather than the typical symmetric heart.
This suite was also influenced by Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus with Venus being the Ancient Roman name for Aphrodite. In this painting, the artist depicts the goddess being born out of a clam, much in the same way as a pearl. This convinced me to use pearls to enhance the pieces along with white Swarovski crystals. The chains for the necklace and the bracelet were created by sewing lace onto the pieces as I felt that it was apt to the theme of love.
The overall design extends even to the lobster clasp on the necklace and bracelet as I was able to source heart shaped lobster clasps.
This suite was inspired by the creature Medusa.
According to Greek Mythology, Medusa wasn’t always the ugly monster that she is known to be, in fact she was the most beautiful out of three sisters with the two others being born as monsters with snakes for hair referred to as The Gorgons, which is where this suite derives its name. Medusa and her sisters lived far up north where the sun didn’t visit and being the curios girl that she was she asked the goddess Athena for permission to visit the south. Athena refused and Medusa, out of anger, dared to say that Athena hadn’t granted her permission because she was jealous of her beauty. Athena punished her by turning her hair into snakes and cursing her vision so that anyone who she looked upon and shared eye-contact with would turn into stone.
The design for this suite centres around the snake motif, however I did not want to make it literal. The faux snake skin fabric and the green Swarovski crystals in the exact same shade of green as the fabric enabled me to get the desired effect.
In the earrings this effect is enhanced by the construction of the earring itself. A piece of sheet metal was cut into a thin strip and a snake head. These were connected using a jump ring in order to create the same fluidity which a snake has. The rectangle is covered in the same fabric used for the choker to represent the body of the snake and the snake’s eyes are two crystals on the head. The reason I chose to denote the eyes in the crystals is to give them the same striking allure that the Medusa was supposed to have.
