Friday, February 19, 2010

Elizabethan ghosts

1. virgin, 2. doll parts, 3. Untitled, 4. Salvaged book, 5. itissafe, 6. Untitled, 7. _chateau_39_19, 8. full power, 9. La scala di zucchero


Thinking and exploring the new themes in my head lately- coming together of my two recent 'brain hummings' - the term 'Elizabethan ghosts' (bought on by these beads) and field walker's finds from across England's rolling landscape.




I'm waiting on some more chain and jump rings in the mail, so I can't do much except construct little pendant ideas and sew up the lacy rags. I have finished one piece that's in the shop, but I want to explore using less textile and more rag for these, since they need to have an almost invisible appearance.

While the inspirational images and the elements I'll be using in the pieces are not Elizabethan in themselves, that's kind of what I want. I'm looking for the ghost element to be a representation of something lost in time- or being in the wrong place in time. To us the Elizabethan ghost is in the wrong place; to the ghost themselves it's the environment that is wrong. So I guess this is jewellery that an Elizabethan ghost has made to fit the world they find themselves trapped in.


I purposefully haven't studied any Elizabethan jewellery while on this trip because I don't want to replicate what was the style or fashion of the time. I want to evoke what my mind sees as Elizabethan whether or not that's real- in fact Elizabethan is more a evocative term more than anything, because I'll be going from Tudor and Georgian 'ideas' as well. I'm trying to get to history via my own imaginings rather than what's documented; I've never been big on research into historical fashion, since I'm creating rather than recreating, I have the liberty to explore what my mind tells me is Elizabethan rather than what actually is.


I suppose most people usually call it 'inspired by'. It doesn't really feel like that, it feel more like remembering half-forgotten dreams, and getting them confused with something else.

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