My collection is a range of bracelets I’ve collected from traveling overseas and around New Zealand, the themes going through out my collection are jewellery, individuality, and crafting. Concepts that make it a collection is how the items are all jewellery collected from different location, all are made out of the similar material which is wood and all of these items have a beach appearance.
One of the themes in my collection is “jewellery” this is because the objects in the collection are all jewellery, the bracelet and necklace is made out of materials like wood, strings, and other objects like shells or shark teeth, these types of jewellery are normally sold in beach areas or surf stores as they are worn by surfers. I choose to collect jewellery like this because of how its hand made, and I like the look how its crafted and also its wearable I find collecting something wearable when traveling as a good way idea to hold memories because each necklace or bracelet holds a different memory from each location.One of my jewellery’s are from Hawaii, this is the object with a shark tooth. The objects like the shark tooth put into jewellery are known for luck during being in the water and the beach, it is suppose to stop sharks from attacking you “symbol of protection, shark teeth in jewellery is not taken directly from the shark this is because shark tooth are found in the bottom of the sea from tooth lost and so this is where the teeth are found and also come in different sizes. In Hawaii shark teeth used in jewellery isn’t just s symbol of protection but also is a representation of praising to the sharks this is called “Aumakau” because some sharks are known as gods (Kiley, 2015). The shark tooth in the jewellery is quite interesting for me and important as am I am taking a part of Hawaii back with me. Other locations that I’ve got my jewellery from is Fiji, Waiheke Island and Bay of islands.
Individuality is another theme in my collection, I’ve chosen this as one of my themes because each object has a individual meaning from a memory “memento” however not all my objects are from travelling some objects are also given by a close friend “keepsake”. The jewellery from Hawaii is important to me because it was my first time travelling there, It was a interesting experience for me to be surround by surf culture as this is something I’m interested in and it was astonishing seeing it in real life rather then on social media and I saw also surround by their culture and art. The jewellery from Fiji is important to me because it holds the memory of new experiences, these are going to Fiji for the 1st time, living around the beach and sea for a whole week and also visiting the villages in Fiji and schools this was a important experience for me because I saw the different between with how I live as the villages were a very poor areas and all the kids lived in the school with not much stationary, they also didn’t have clean mattresses to sleep in and this was a eye opening experience for me because the kids didn’t have much but yet they seemed happy. Other object with a important memory is my bracelet with the Rastafarian colours, this was given by a friend and it holds a memory of a music festival surround by reggae music and an Rastafarian influence and the rest of my jewellery are memories of new surrounds from road trips. The idea of the memories hold in the objects almost make it look like a collection of memories instead of a collection of jewellery.
Craft is another theme associated into my collection, this is because all these objects are Crafted. During time some of these objects have broken from getting old and I’ve take in the time to fix them by repainting them and repairing them and this also recreates the jewellery into a new look however this doesn’t change the memory the objects hold and the reason why I’ve collected crafted items is because they’re made out of wood which chips and changes over time which gives the object a interesting texture this goes the same for the shells on the jewellery and natural media gives the objects raw look, I also like how the jewellery has hand craft patterns crafted into it, I find this interesting it takes a lot of time, hard work, and focusing to be created . Crafting is also a movement related to art which is a interest I have, this is one of the reasons why I choose to collect crafted jewellery. My collection of jewellery’s are mostly craft by oceans or beach’s, this is something important in my collection as the beach culture is something I take interest in and the surrounding of where I collect my object is also Important to me as this is part of the memory being hold on with it. The Craft jewellery’s all have neutral colours, this is because I don’t want the object to be about the look as much as the memory it holds, I think the idea of collecting crafted jewellery is a good idea as it is something you can remake yourself as well with found objects. As for repairing the jewellery I also create my own jewellery with crafting with found objects or objects from old jewellery, I then make it into something new and is add to my collection.
We can come to say that my collection are objects that are personal to me which carry personal experience and memories, carry out the theme of jewellery, individuality, and crafting. The concept that makes my objects a collection is the memories collected with the jewellery and the location of the memory, the influence of experience bought along with the object which makes the collection what it is.
References
Kiley,K. (2015) 7 facts about shark tooth jewellery you didn’t know retrieved from https://www.loveandpieces.com/blogs/online-jewelry-boutique-blog/47960195-7-facts-about-shark-tooth-jewelry-you-didnt-know
Emily Shen 