Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Patina Handmade Jewelry

As a textile designer by profession, I am always looking for ways to apply textile patterns and techniques on metal.

For example when I was working in collaboration with fashion designer Adva bruner for duende for the TLV fashion week runway show, we looked for a way to make tie -dye textile colors over metal jewelry parts. That's how I discover the patina, an antique Greek handmade coloring technique that actually resembles the tie- dye technique in textile design, Adva was looking for ways to create waves in knitting and I was searching for the look and feel of treasures drawn from the ocean. 

This lead to the patina collection, in Sparkling blue and natural green colors like treasures lurking at the dark.



The role of color in sculpture and decorative arts was significant from the very beginning.

In ancient times, metals that were most resistant to the changes resulting from heat and the surrounding atmosphere, were actually considered nobler, and were used for the more important artifacts, 

however, the inheritors of those traditions had a revived interest in the artifacts of earlier periods that had the natural patination, produced mostly from long burial. These objects were collected and studied.

The growing interest in classicism such as in renaissance Italy and the Chin dynasty in china, resulted in the desire to imitate the natural patination that was associated with a prized artifact, this led to artificial patination being a finishing process in its own right used on contemporary work.

Most of the basic processes of metal work involve the use of heat, which results in changing the metal surface into oxides. With just the touch of heat, air, oxygen or any other chemical materials, even from our own kitchen supplies can be used into making a beautiful color to wear. 

For instance, putting metal next to vinegar fumes in a closed box for 24 hours will result in a green patina layer,or bury them in a plastic bag next to a rotten egg.

Color might be considered less important in the making of sculpture or craft, as it is a separate process applied to the object after its making, but in many cases it's actually a key factor in the visual coherence of the object, and there for it is of great importance.

It is also  interesting to think of color not as an added layer, but as a surface and a material on its own, with growing life and emerging colors that keep evolving and changing and growing on the surface.


Me wearing my Woodland leaf necklace
you can find it here: