Through the Loupe

How much do you know about your jewellery?

Not simply the materials, or the facts of the design or influences.

Do you know who made it and where they trained? Perhaps where the individual parts came from, or even why you selected the piece in the first place? What drove you to select the style, shape and material?

Jewellery is the thread that connects civilisations, from their beginnings through to their downfalls, and passed to the next beginning.

In war, it is the first item seized; it is the last item sold when the finances are thin.

Crafted from the most valuable materials possessed by mankind, we use it to adorn our bodies, celebrate our lives and mourn our dead.

We wear it against our skin and pass it to our children, give it to those we love and take it from those we hate.

Jewellery can be addictive; the lure of value, the greed of possession and the beauty of ‘gem fever’.

Jewellery adorns our lives and death, and yet how often do we think about the influence it really has on our lives?

Even more so than painting, jewellery contains a microcosm of human life, dazzling beauty and deep emotional meaning crafted with blood, sweat and tears. Within its history, humanities greatest evils can be found; its worst and most self-destructive traits exemplified and somehow washed clean by the sheer value and beauty of the end product.

We must explore our relationship with the most valuable creation of our species, and within it we can find not just our history, but the truth of our natures. Too many aspects of jewellery have been forgotten, from the craft itself, the hands of the craftsmen, to the politics and values that shape its form.

We desire beautiful things; we are drawn irresistibly to them. If you claim to not be drawn to jewellery, I counter that you haven’t experienced jewellery yet.

Jewellery is inherently tactile. It is made to be worn, to be held and caressed. To see a picture of a piece is a poor second to be able to handle it. In Australia, we do not have much jewellery in the public domain, except in retail stores, which are not always the most comfortable and welcoming of places.

If you wish to understand jewellery, you need to see it with your eyes, not through a camera lens. You need to hold it in your hands and up to the sunlight, turn it over and inspect all its hidden places.

You can provide your eyes and your hands, and I will help guide you in what to look for. A gemstone will always be beautiful to the eye, but knowing the violent and human history of the gem itself will give you a reverence to the beauty.

The value of jewellery is in more than just the sheer value of its materials; it’s the lives and stories of all those it has touched, a history of humankind itself.