Necklace like Nouveau
Necklace like Nouveau
October 20, 2011 2 Comments on Necklace like Nouveau- Gold Green Tulip Necklace, 2011
Our work is often taking clues from nature. While forms, colors and patterns serve as an inspiration to us it is not our intention to create literal translations of these things. This series of necklaces created with hollow forms of polymer clay touch on the decorative art movement of Art Nouveau. The fascination of Art Nouveau with the natural world and its emphasis on creating a sense of movement are evident in the designs of the style. Quoting from a description found on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website , “They are often awash with aquatic motifs,…taking inspiration from the unruly aspects of the natural world, Art Nouveau influenced art and architecture especially in the applied arts, graphic work, and illustration. Sinuous lines and “whiplash” curves were derived, in part, from botanical studies and illustrations of deep-sea organisms such as those by German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834–1919) in Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature, 1899).”
- We are fans of audacity and invention in jewelry. Art Nouveau, in it’s blaze of invention, fantasy and audacity, was also in part a reaction to the perceived ugliness and despair of the machine age. While we are not reactive in the same way we have maintained a constant “hands on” approach to our work. We don’t use computers (today’s modern machine) to design work. We have always made work with our hands and a few hand tools. Designs and ideas are drawn on paper. This direct approach to our material lends itself to stylized organic forms much like those found in Art Nouveau.
2 Comments
[…] · 0 comments These Embrace beads by Steven Ford and David Forlano showed up in a recent blog post about how their work touches on themes similar to those in the Art Nouveau period. They share a […]
I really like the Gold Green Tulip Necklace, incredible work!