The Ugly Necklace Contest

Land of Odds : Sixth Annual, 2008
The Ugly Necklace Contest
A Jewelry Design Competition With A Twist
...GO VOTE & EVALUATE...

Edith Cheitman
from Sarasota, Florida

"Song of the Venerable Bede"

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Wearing

POEM

Song of the Venerable Bede

The New Age Market has decreed
there be more Spirit in their beads.
No more sufficient, ostentation;
they now require extrapolation
From world religions to their jewelry
which tempts designers to buffoonery.

This ugly necklace is evidence
of a bauble fraught with such mystical defense.

The Chinese foo dog guards the wearer on her Path as she pursues
enlightenment (the crystal quartz) and further arcane power through
Tibetan dragon and, of course, the inevitable, exotic, (this time Moroccan) yet comfortingly familiar cross.

Carved Buddha sighs and on his breath the eagle feather rises
through several hundred turquoise beads (perpetually spiritual turquoise leads to absolutely no surprises.)

The entire construct is entrusted to the grasping eagle claw
desperately snatching wisdom's pearl -- then more and more and ever more.

To underpin this dubious theme
and underscore the moral
the whole is strung on jagged pearls
and allegedly branch coral.
To string them neatly side by side implies
that there might be
some underlying sense or plan
but close inspection indicates that evens view with odds
while chaos helter-skelter reigns
among the loose strung gods.

And so, to close, the ancient pearl beyond all price is gained;
through garish bead and highest price
arcane wisdom has been obtained.

And we another season rest
whilst quoting van der Rohe
that god is in the details or --
wait -- could it be -- NO!

Is that instead the devil there, lurking
behind each carefully wired shank?
God or devil; theologically impeccable and fair, we take both to the bank.

Front View

Edith writes..., Imagine being trapped at dinner with my submission necklace around the neck of the woman seated to your left. If you were constrained by good manners and respect for your host, you would be trapped in the presence of the unharmonious, unable to cry out for help, in a visual environment that could curdle the pot de creme. Of course you would talk only to the woman on your right. But what if SHE was wearing the work by another designer from the competition. Outer Limits, indeed.

Close Up

MATERIALS:

Red coral, red coral carved, hawk's claw, eagle's claw pearls, sterling silver heishi, turquoise heishi, antique silver beads, Tibetan turquoise, sterling and coral dragon, quartz crystal, base metal casting of Chinese foo dog, Moroccan cross, Mother of Pearl pendant converted into clasp.

Clasp Assembly
Mother of Pearl Pendant, wire hook under claw, toggle ring

"I design my jewelry so that, by wearing it, a person is making a spiritual commitment.

The commitment symbolized by this necklace is to willingly subrogate the body of knowledge that one has amassed in this life (symbolized by the free-moving sphere within the three-taloned hawk's claw which represents human intellect) to the Unknown (symbolized by the empty silver circle).

Once this connection is made (by fastening the hook underneath the claw directly to the silver circle) the body of knowledge continues to spin separately and inviolate while the more important connection is made to the larger universal Truth symbolized by the double terminated crystal....

It is also possible to fasten the necklace by putting the hook into one of the embellishments on the mother of pearl oval (or egg). If that connection is made it will be seen that the body of knowledge is not engaged with the circle in such a way as to make the configuration complete. This is a far inferior closure (commitment) with an inferior payoff because if the engagement of the body of knowledge is incomplete, the person is not wholly involved in the process and, therefore, the association with the crystal is tangential rather than being an integral and necessarily completing aspect of the search for Enlightenment...."

From Edith's blog on fabulousamulets.etsy.com....,

Central to the ugliness of the piece is its superficial insistence on inherent beauty. After all we have here the lure of the nacrescent pearl, the organic charm of coral, ever-reliable sterling silver and a design which is, on first view, abolutely rhythmic in its one by one repetition of number, size, color of element. Only when we are lured by this initial seduction does the horror encroach and are we able to see the evil in every pearl -- its forced malformation ,uneven development, truncated visual sweep, gnarled twists.

...GO VOTE & EVALUATE...

Edith Cheitman
from Sarasota, Florida

"Song of the Venerable Bede"