Abstract

My inspiration for this project comes from a Chinese novel named from 1947 titled Fortress Besieged that refers to marriage as like a city: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out. There are two sides to every marriage—and obviously not only marriage, but everything in the world has more than one face. While this duality is indispensable to humanity, it also brings us serious problems. My work was completed and my thoughts were expressed through sharply contrasting colors and materials. It is said in Tagore’s book Stray Birds that “God’s right hand is gentle, but terrible is his left hand.” Nothing is stationary in the world and everything has two sides, satisfactory and barely acceptable.

Leo Tolstoy said “All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” I agree with him, because shadow is not a necessity for brightness, but you must go through it to understand the brightness. Light and shadow, success and failure, joy and pain, brilliant with dark, peak and trough... There are always two sides to everything.

I want to use opposing colors and materials to create my jewelry and to help me express that everything has two opposite sides. I want to create jewelry that is a combination of metal wire and fabric. I want to use the elements of fashion design to create jewelry. Jewelry is not only for luxury but can be for a part of your body.

There are three reasons that I chose fabric with which to create my jewelry. First, the properties of metal and fabric are opposites, with one being hard and the other being soft, and in combination they express the duality present throughout our world. Second, I want to evoke strong reactions from viewers when they realize that jewelry is not only a kind of metal decoration. Third, I want to use elements of fashion design to create my jewelry.

Also, I have two reasons for using metal wire. The first is that I would like to make some simple jewelry. While “simple” doesn’t mean easy here, it is a kind of a succinct style. Second, the metal wire is not very expensive and I hope my jewelry can be wearable for many people. I hope through my jewelry people will have a feeling that everything has two sides.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Jewelry--Themes, motives; Jewelry--Technique; Metal sculpture--Themes, motives; Metal sculpture--Technique; Soft sculpture--Themes, motives; Soft sculpture--Technique

Publication Date

2-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Metals and Jewelry Design (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School for American Crafts (CIAS)

Advisor

Leonard Urso

Advisor/Committee Member

Juan Carlos Caballero-Perez

Advisor/Committee Member

Robin Cass

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at NK7398.X8 A4 2016

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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