Category Archives: jewelry

Fabergé: Work I Love

Laurie says:

This past Wednesday was the 166th anniversary of the birth of famous Russian jeweler Carl Fabergé, best known for his famous Fabergé eggs, on May 30, 1846.

I was lucky enough to see the amazing eggs, carvings and jewelry in the Forbes Museum when I was young and living in New York City. The collection was sold in the 80’s. It was a small free museum and I spent a lot of time there. This was long before I made jewelry, but the influence stayed with me. (The political context of the work is a very different conversation and one I was aware of then.)

The firm was founded by Carl’s father Gustav in 1842 and migrated to Paris after the Russian revolution. Their work was intimately involved with Russian royalty.

Fabergé … was invited to exhibit at the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow. One of the Fabergé pieces displayed at the Pan-Russian Exhibition was a replica of a 4th century BC gold bangle from the Scythian Treasure in the Hermitage Museum. Tsar Alexander III declared that he could not distinguish Fabergé’s work from the original. He ordered that specimens of work by the House of Fabergé should be displayed in the Hermitage Museum as examples of superb contemporary Russian craftsmanship. In 1885, the House of Fabergé was bestowed with the coveted title “Goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown”, beginning an association with the Russian tsars.

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In 1885, Tsar Alexander III commissioned the House of Fabergé to make an Easter egg as a gift for his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorova . Its “shell” is enamelled on gold to represent a normal hen’s egg. This pulls apart to reveal a gold yolk, which in turn opens to produce a gold chicken that also opens to reveal a replica of the Imperial Crown from which a miniature ruby egg was suspended. The tradition of the Tsar giving his Empress a surprise Easter egg by Carl Fabergé continued. From 1887, it appears that Carl Fabergé was given complete freedom as to the design of the Imperial Easter eggs as they became more elaborate.
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Amongst Fabergé’s more popular creations were the miniature hardstone carvings of people, animals and flowers carved from semi-precious or hardstones and embellished with precious metals and stones. The most common animal carvings were elephants and pigs but included custom made miniatures of pets of the British Royal family and other notables. The flower sculptures were complete figural tableaus, which included small vases in which carved flowers were permanently set, the vase and “water” were done in clear rock crystal (quartz) and the flowers in various hardstones and enamel. The figures were typically only 25-75mm long or wide, with some larger and more rare figurines reaching 140mm to 200mm tall.

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And finally an iris brooch:

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When I was making image choices on Google, it was taking a long time because I love to look at the work.

Imagine a Pomegranate

The black pomegranate pendant/sculpture was inspired by this poem by Elena Rose that I heard at a reading.  She blogs as little light.   This was the first time I heard a poem and immediately knew I wanted to sculpt the imagined pomegranate. It was the first piece I’ve ever done that was inspired by a specific poem and the desire to capture and transform part of its essence. I’ve since found other poems that directly inspire me. It’s a new challenging, difficult and pleasurable part of my process.

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Size is about 2″ by 2″.  It’s dark antiqued sterling with rubies for the seeds.  Text reads ” Imagine a dark room.  Imagine a pomegranate”

Imagine a pomegranate.

A little red flower got what it wanted and it withers, its hips swelling until it is glossy and round and hard and so ripe-full of promise it is tearing its own seams.

You don’t rush a pomegranate.

It’s the only fruit I know of that, if you stab a knife right in, it bleeds.  Pomegranates are for the patient and determined.

Imagine a pomegranate, full of blood and secrets.  You have to draw your fingers along it, feel how it fits together under the skin, where the ribs are.  Your knife should be sharp: two deep strokes across the flower, strong and sure—four more, light and sweet, scoring all the way around, shallow, expectant, just enough pressure to give it license to crack.

Two thumbs, certain fingers, a twist, in halves, in quarters the color of my mouth.

You break the seeds and stain your shirt, if you don’t know your way, if you’re hasty.  An easy fingertip, just so along each garnet-top, and it’s free, into the bowl or your teeth.  Keep the little bitter white end.  You need it.

Imagine a pomegranate, chamber after chamber, stroke by stroke, lifting one honeycomb translucent membrane with stained fingertips, exploring, full after full, sting after sweet, discovering, until there is only rind left.  You have to share, you have to take your time, imagine.

Imagine my body, where my womb isn’t.  Where no child will be cradled in the bowl of my hips, below the stomach of me.  Imagine where I crack open, imagine where I bleed even though each month I am reminded that I am barren as the Moon.

My body ends with me.  You have to take your time and there will be only rind left, some day, paper and ribs and stains, sting after sweet, inside out.

Imagine this death.  I am underground, my breasts heavy, feeding nothing.  I am mint and endings.  I am all-hospitable, I am the treasure-house, I am full.

Imagine a dark room, where my seeds are scattered, and I am not eating, and my hips swell but my body ends with me.

Imagine a pomegranate.

Elena Rose will be reading from her work at Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue Thursday, March 24th here in San Francisco, as will our guest blogger Marlene Hoeber.