The multiple facets of jewellery

Jewellery today strongly represents the schizophrenic, dynamic mood of our times.
When dealing with jewellery, all of its multiple facets should be considered as well as virtual platforms defining people’s tastes according to their own strategies and those of organisations, conventions, collectors, galleries, exhibitions and – last but not least – highly considered experts and journalist in the field.
That is why care and research are vital to personal judgement, preventing errors and omissions.
A scrupulous analysis also underlines how the present-day, multiple functions of jewellery have definitely enriched it, moving from an early, mere symbolic role, to the current – and far from being simple – role of core contemporary narrator.

 

Jewellery manufacturers (including artisans, artists, designers and Maisons), their background and skills confirm a special care for tradition, narration and materials as media of expression, free from thousand-year rules and schemes, but modern and dynamic.
Due to the wide range of genres and events, it is now necessary that some serious consideration about how artists are selected and express themselves should be made. Despite its small size, a jewel can speak an ever-growing, multifaceted, multicultural language, using personal fruition as a code.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Objectivity, no cultural, educational, sector-based prejudices, and a free approach from criteria having little to do with all aspects of jewellery information are therefore strictly needed.
The “To Be Or To Have?” question by Fromm makes no sense to jewellery, as both aspects come together in a self-contradictory unicum: value and memory, material and immaterial.
Since the dawn of time, jewellery has been a dense part of human memory and personal experiences. May be this is why still today, and everywhere, jewels are able to mark different places, cultures and people according to their specific knowledge and culture.

Contemporary jewellery is artistically and globally evolving according to this model: due to the rapid circulation of information and images, a vast range of different visions have been developing in the last decades, which are at the basis of a prolific production inspired by different countries and experiences.
Handicraft, art, design and fashion are all matched together with jewellery to compose a kaleidoscopic puzzle of opposite but osmotic styles at a time.
In such a context, it is worth pointing out how sign is a common element: it is deeply rooted both in exclusive and commercial jewellery and its significant calibre ranges from the sublime to the grotesque without losing power. In its various forms, including art jewellery, hand-made jewellery, design jewellery, sign can also express all its potential thanks to its final user: when a jewel is worn, its purpose is fulfilled.
This is where narration about jewellery should start from, for those who are eager for stories and experiences within a global scenario where loads of different images are broadcast by digital communication in real time.
Though this evolution took place during the last century both in Europe and North America, due to today’s collapse of barriers and borders, it is vital to implement research and sharing of ideas and peculiarities to prevent wasting of all codes developed and widespread so far.

 

This is where all experience and evolution starts from and what makes us know we are doing well and considering jewellery with no prejudice about origin or provenance.
Experimentation, research, connection, freedom of choice and education are the cultural background of our views and the starting point of our narration – through this blog – about our personal perspective on jewellery in the new millennium.