Klimt02 Project

Maria Cristina Bellucci, an Italian Jewellery Designer, who lives and is based in Rome Italy was born in 1964. Even though her first sense of higher education was in Jewellery manufacture and design her also studied animation and stage design, giving her a wonderful design sense in designing jewellery that is unusual and considered bold and different from classical contemporary  jewellery.  In her statement she says “What characterized my early work was the use of very thin metal sheets and wires, experimenting with hollowness and fullness. In later work, I started using even thinner metal sheets, as if working with paper sheets, creating pieces that were voluminous and light at the same time.” [1] Her later works take inspiration from working in bold colours for stage shows, and her love and knowledge of mixed media has given her a unique way of bringing them together to make stunning pieces of jewellery. She works in Rome and is currently a free lance jeweller doing collections and commission pieces. 

Maria Cristina Bellucci
Ring: Ring 4 2009
Silver, coloured pencils, ebony
3,2 x 2,2 x 0,6 cm

The piece I have decided to write about is this unusual ring titled “Ring 4 2009”. She has taken what is a very natural rough wood and shaped it into a ring, but not the conventional shape. The circle being the focus and traditionally where you place it on your finer, but the square shape is what makes it bold and unusual. Its design is modern and picks up on the shape of the main feature of this ring, but ergonomically it would probably be uncomfortable as the fingers would not come together. She says “holes and very big holes is my favourite from an aesthetic point of view” [2]. When designing her jewellery, this aspect of her design likes and dislikes plays a key role in how the final piece will finish. Whether she designs from the “hole” outwards or from the piece to the “hole” her finished pieces are unusual and unique.  Her love of mixed media comes into play here, taking normal coloured pencils and joining them together to make a wonderfully colourful top to a ring, encasing it in a silver “frame” as it were just finishes the design. Her play with what’s organic and what isn’t is shown very literally here. The wood and the silver are contrasting in material, but they somehow compliment each other.  If the silver border was not around the colour, It would give a slightly softer feel, but without this I think the design would seem unfinished and even a little bit simple.

Maria Cristina Bellucci
Bracelet: Bracelet 1 2009
Silver, coloured pencils
9,5 x 7,5 x 1,5 cm

The next piece, titled Bracelet “1 2009” is what I consider to be a more organic design. Her designs ideas are very similar, inspired by bright colours and differing materials from the norm in jewellery manufacture, this bracelet again uses coloured pencils, but in a very free smooth shape. The pencils, all joined together using epoxy give the bracelet a very solid feel, but the look of the pencils each with there own individual shape give the impression that you should be able to move each individual pencil, like a link. As well as the shape not being the classical perfectly round, it follows a similar shape as the outside, but not in way that makes the bracelet equal thickness. The same can be said for the overall finish, its smooth yet bumpy and uneven and the clear coat on the piece makes it feel soft, not what you consider to feel when holding rough wood.

Maria Cristina Bellucci
Ring 2010
Bread, epoxy resin, ebony
7 x 4.5 x 2.8 cm.

 This next piece, a ring, titled: Ring is made using bread, epoxy resin and a piece of Ebony for the main frame of the ring. Her main design goal is to try and create a piece of jewellery and an artwork; in this ring I truly don’t understand the meaning or symbolism behind using such a strange combinations of mediums. She chose to make the ring from wood, and the main part of the ring (the focal point) this unusual shape. From reading about the ring she doesn’t use any kind of inspiration for the shape of this ring. The voids in the resin (almost look like they’ve been drilled in) or something placed in when the resin was setting and removed at a later date, it makes an unusual form for a ring, and with this form almost feeling like its slipping down the ring gives it an almost naturist feel about it, like its outgrown the top surface. The contrast in the dark ebony ring against the opaque epoxy is quite pleasing to the eye, and the dark ring against the hand makes you look at it, hardly noticing the almost clear design on top. Although the look of this ring is quite organic, being made of epoxy it’s actually very hard. From the design, it looks like you should be able to manipulate the top part into whatever you like. Even though the ring has been made to look bold it’s actually highly impractical, and appears to be uncomfortable. The crystallisation appearance of the epoxy could be seen as a play on a stone/crystal but from its unusual shape in my opinion this doesn't work. 

References/Footnotes:

[1] http://www.klimt02.net/exhibitions/index.php?item_id=22609 - Statement [2]  http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=11203 - quote

Bibliography:	References:
Internet Images:	Images used:
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 9 of 23, Maria Cristina Bellucci Ring: Ring 4 2009 Silver, coloured pencils, ebony  3,2 x 2,2 x 0,6 cm (Date accessed: 12th July 2011)
“Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 10 of 23,  Maria Cristina Bellucci, Bracelet: Bracelet 1 2009 Silver, coloured pencils 9,5 x 7,5 x 1,5 cm (Date accessed: 12th July 2011)
“Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 13 of 23,  Maria Cristina Bellucci, Ring 2010, Bread, epoxy resin, ebony, 7 x 4.5 x 2.8 cm (Date accessed: 12th July 2011)
Internet Articles/Blogs/Pages	References used:
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/	Online international forum exhibiting works from designers, artists and jewellers. (Date accessed: 11th July 2011)
“Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=11203	Quote under Sphere Ring 2007. (Date accessed: 13th July 2011)

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Nora Rochel is a German born Jewellery designer who still works and lives in Konstanz and who has won numerous international awards for her individuality in style and her creativity.  Her education in jewellery and jewellery design is full of cultural experience and influences, having studied for a diploma in Jewellery Design in Pforzheim between 2004 and 2009, she continued her education and went abroad on a student exchange program with another student in Seoul, Korea which she studied in the department of metalwork’s and jewellery design in Kookmin University in 2007. He varied education has given her style a very unusual look, she is inspired by flowers and organic growth [1] but takes these forms and transforms them into something beautiful, far beyond what is classically known as a flower, in her own way she says she is “inspired by the full spectrum of there complexity and variegation” [2]What’s fascinating about her work is the way she is able to take hidden characteristics of a simple flower and chance it into a piece of jewellery, without being literal or making such a literal interpretation. Her jewellery allows for a wearer to have there own piece of Eden, a small landscape or garden to be worn on the body. Rochel’s Jewellery is obviously inspired by nature and items around her, and even though working with a wide variety of metals including bronze, gold and silver, he work appears soft and organic, like the objects in which she derives her inspiration. They look like they should move with the wind; it’s this simple way of finishing with a patina that makes her work so successful.

Nora Rochel
Bracelet: Untitled 2009
Bronze
Photo by Sebastian Lang

 The Bracelet Untitled Bronze, 2009; is a simple and unique item. The way in which the metal has been manipulated to create a link effect is beautiful. The way the holes have been made into the piece gives the eye something to look at before moving in to see all the other details. The rough, spotted texture to the surface gives the feel of something grown, or seeds ready to grow. Because of this surface treatment and the metal which she’s used, to me it gives the impression of coral, slowly growing to create a wonderful hollow and domed shape. She says she likes to capture the Vitality of what inspired her, and show it in her piece; with this I think she has on some level achieved that, Maybe a variety of surface treatments/texture/colour/patina would have made it even more unique. In her other designs, she’s played with differing ways of showing her design. In this design, the domed circular pattern is the main focus point of the design, and this repeating makes up the shape of a bracelet, and in some of her differing designs she makes it almost seem secretive, placing her design in a organic form/shape like it’s a discovered treasure. Its this whimsical way of playing with how she creates a piece of jewellery that makes her work so interesting, unusual and unique.

Nora Rochel
Ring: Untitled 2009
925 Silver, 585 Red Gold
Photo by Nora Rochel

This ring, untitled 2009 made in sterling silver and red gold is a wonderful example of Rochel’s unusual technique in making a piece of jewellery something beyond unique. This rings appears that it could have grown into this form naturally, they way in which all the individual elements come from the base of the ring, join together and then bloom into a form of a flower is stunning. Her choice of differing coloured metals in this design compliments this design well, and not having a highly polished finish on the silver accentuates the naturally inspired design further. Each small element of this ring look similar, but are all hand made and slightly different, layering them together in differing heights and having them varying in thickness also portrays a sense of it growing upwards to create this hollow cavity in which the main focal point of the ring comes out. The inside of the band is smooth as is the flat base under the main point of the ring, this again emphasises the way in which things happen in nature. Plants and forms of life will grow and latch onto items, making it part of themselves, makes you wonder when wearing it, would the ring continue to grow its way around the wearer. The way in which the gold reaches out the dome, coming higher than the silver cage surrounding it gives a sense of transformation, the silver maturing into gold and radiating out finding a new source in which to create another form.

Nora Rochel
Ring: Secret Garden ll 2009
925 Silver
Photo by Sebastian Lang

This ring, Secret Garden II 2009, created in sterling silver truly lives up to its name. The organic form and uneven shape emphasises the design. The small arrangement of flowers, in this case quite literal (unlike lots of her other works, not actually making the design life like) yet encasing them in a cocoon, making them feel that there struggling to survive, reaching for light, is fascinating and in making it in this way, small and compact its for the eyes of the wearer. Her design in this instance is almost taken from what a real flower looks like, there is the outside of the flower, the petals and stem, but inside there is a whole other world, all the individual particles of pollen, each flower individual and unique. The flowers inside the ring all originate from differing sides of the domes, rather from just a central point. Even though the ring is silver, with the white patina it looks like the piece Is made with stone, if the finish was shiny I don’t believe it would have shown the theme to its fullest potential. The band of the rings is rough and uneven, like the main feature, but still conforms to a ring in shape and size. 

References/Footnotes:

[1] http://www.nora-rochel.de/main.html
[2] http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562

Bibliography:	References:
Internet Images:	Images used:
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 2 of 19, Jeweller Profile picture, Nora Rochel (Date accessed: 14th July 2011)
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 9 of 19, Nora Rochel, Bracelet: Untitled 2009, Bronze (Date accessed: 14th July 2011)
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 18 of 19,  Nora Rochel, Ring: Untitled 2009, 925 Silver, 585 Red Gold (Date accessed: 13th July 2011)
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Image 19 of 19,  Nora Rochel, Ring: Secret Garden ll 2009, 925 Silver (Date accessed: 13th July 2011)
Internet Articles/Blogs/Pages	References used:
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/	Online international forum exhibiting works from designers, artists and jewellers. (Date accessed: 14th July 2011)
Klimt 02 – online forum: International art and Jewellery http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=20562	Quote from Jewellers Statement. (Date accessed: 14th July 2011)
Nora-Rochell Official Website http://www.nora-rochel.de/main.html	(Date accessed: 14th July 2011)
Jewellers Blog – The Carrot Box http://glassfiction.blogspot.com/2010/02/nora-rochel-devi-jewellery-marisanna.html	Quote about Nora Rochel (Date accessed: 14th July 2011)