Difficult Motifs:
well, here's the big messy one;
Heart.
Recently my graphic-designer friend, J. asked me to help him make a heart- motif pendant for his wife, O. I'd imgine he deals with symbols, emblems and logos intensely, but even so, he seemed a little bewildered about this motif- like he couldnt see it anymore?
Ive noticed this before- that while some embrace the heart-motif, some are shy.
I suppose that trying to symbolise an Epic/Everyday thing like Love has its difficulties.
You cant hope to describe it richly with a shape or a word.
Still, we hint at it.
Someone, sometime, chose the heart organ as a love symbol.
but note; there will be no veins or blood. Love shall be shown as compact, symmetrical,
and insular! Ok? Ok.
I may not be helping J. by mentioning John and Yoko, but still, you'll all find it interesting.
I was looking in the back of my head for some quality precedents for heart jewellery-
and remembered seeing one on an album cover- Double Fantasy- John and Yoko.
Yoko has a heart- shaped diamond pendant.
It turns out they had a lover's quarrel and Yoko gave it back to John, who ended up wearing it all the time. I was looking for a photo of that- and my wife Alice found one- in my record collection again! The John Lennon Collection has a very un-retouched photo of John ( complete with pilly jumper)-wearing the heart.
So- its good enough for John.
So with this in mind I set about making 22k Au. hearts for O's pendant...
I decided to cleave out the heart shapes using a chisel ( a l'ancienne) to avoid the wastage that results from using a saw. ( known as swarf- or more specifically to the precious metals; lemel)
I do this chiselling on an old iron block- because it tends to damage the surface of an anvil.
I took a pic of heart #1 on John's pilly sleeve.
more to come, as I finish the piece...