Bound Silver
Bound Silver
Imagine yourself as a child seeing men with woven earlobes hanging down to their chests and marveling at the wonder, beauty and brutality of body scarification? In a place that is savage and wild, literally anything can be considered jewellery – even today.
The Ritual Binding collection is a visual representation of the memories and experience of Jane’s rare and challenging upbringing in Papua New Guinea. In Pt. Moresby her home was literally carved out of the jungle and her garden encompassed rockeries, tropical plants and trees, deadly spiders and poisonous snakes lurking in the undergrowth, including the beautiful turquoise Morpho Butterflies. Her childhood playground was one of both wonder and fear. One of her father’s favourite activities was hunting for crocodiles.
Similar techniques used to craft the earlier prototypes of each piece in this collection were unconsciously absorbed by Jane from the local native men and women who ritualistically ‘bind’ organic elements together (for making both weapons, jewellery and woven bags (bilims) and baskets). Jane re-interprets this to create entirely new designs. Our intrepid designer invented the technique of binding multi-cultural elements and reinterpreting them with European gold and silver-smithing techniques and gems to produce something entirely new.
Her use of Mother of Pearl pays homage to PNG where the subtle-coloured pearl shells were used as currency and worn by men and women as a sign of wealth and stature. She often includes Chinese elements that she also saw in Papua New Guinea. All these materials lead her thought processes to consider nature, culture, art history, history, prehistory … and time. Her father was an inventor, successful racing driver, a WW 2, RAAF aircraft engineer (in PNG) and champion shot so machinery parts and gun cartridges were also familiar. These appear here and there in the categories of Ritual Binding and End of the World (Mad Max) Collection.
Unconcerned with what other people think, Jane instinctively breaks with convention when creating this collection, achieving this through binding unusual and eclectic materials, colours, textures, shapes, fossils, gems and cultural, anthropological and historical elements that clash yet complement in a post modern appropriation.
Ritual Binding (Bound Silver) is for the woman who is confident of her style, who loves multi-cultural elements and ventures to places others dare not go and who stand defiant in the face of fear and judgement.
Styling Tip
As these pieces combine a variety of colours, shapes, textures and cultural references they can be worn in a great variety of ways. They can be worn with suits, dresses, arty/conceptual clothing, pants suits and shirts, patterned skirt with plain top, cocktails, dinner even evening dress. These necklaces can be dressed ‘up’ or ‘down.’ You will find your own way to extend your wearing of these ‘one off’ designs but support the necklace with both hands when you pick it up. They are not heavy to wear as I have found the weight is displaced across the chest.
