Metal and Jewelry Arts Commons^™

Enlightenment, Chaimae Oualid

be Still

In my painting titled "Enlightenment", I aim to capture the journey towards self-awareness and self-growth, which is often chaotic and filled with struggles.

The painting portrays the internal turmoil that we experience during this journey through a spectrum of colors. Each color represents a different phase of the journey, and the chaos and struggle are evident in the mixture of colors. However, as the journey progresses, the colors gradually shift towards a serene blue and blue hues, representing the final phase of enlightenment. This transformation is depicted in a pair of eyes that reflect a sense of clarity and understanding. …

The Application And Impact Of Digital Technology In Jewelry Art, Lai Tai

MA Theses

Since the invention of the first electronic computer in 1946, digital technology
has gone through three stages: the computer, the Internet, and a new-generation of information technology. The form of digitalization has different background and
environment, and the meaning explained is also different. The digitalization of
specific affairs is actually in a narrow sense, while the digitalization of enterprises and organizations is mostly in a broad sense. Digital technology has a big feature, which is that it can let you leave the physical world and come to the digital world. The digital technology revolution promotes the digital transformation of mankind. …

El Significado Cultural De La Platería Mapuche Contemporánea, Anna Frankel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mapuche silver jewelry (rüxan) is one of the best known symbols of the Mapuche people and is an important aspect of their history and cultural tradition. Silver jewelry production reached its peak in the mid-19th century, but declined drastically with the Chilean invasion and annexation of Mapuche territory in 1883. Despite this loss, Mapuche rüxan and rüxafes (silversmiths) exist to this day.

I analyzed the modern use and relevance of mapuche jewelry to understand why this tradition has survived the repression and poverty the mapuche people have faced. I asked the question: What are the roles of silverware in the …

Winding Down River Road, Gillian Harper

LSU Master's Theses

As a mechanism to explore my temporary home in Louisiana, Winding Down River Road is a collection of artworks that integrates natural materials collected from landscapes in southern Louisiana with steel and petroleum-based products. My interest in researching environmental issues, ecology, and industry has shaped my vehicles for observation and how I generate data. Through a variety of methodologies, I am considering how climate change is forcing many of us to re-contextualize how our home can be affected by the very industries we rely on. Personal engagement with residents living in the dystopian atmosphere of southern Louisiana’s industrial corridor and …

Zoomorphic Amalgamation: Speculative Devices For Alternative Communication, Yuta Yang

Masters Theses

Zoomorphic Amalgamation: Speculative Devices for Alternative Communication is a series of speculative works that assist introverts re-adapting in the extro-oriented society. The work serves as a lens to challenge and question the authority afforded to extroverts in contemporary society, and aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of introverted personality. As a person with an introverted personality, the thesis project draws upon personal experience and to reflect on the current bias and stereotype of characteristics that common to the introverts.

By integrating technological sensors and microcontrollers, the works are created to help the wearer express insecurity, at the same time providing …

Connecting Old Techniques With New Ideas, Brendan Ryan

Undergraduate Research Conference

Metalworking is an ancient field that provides numerous methods to create a similar outcome. This semester I’ve been studying several traditional techniques in jewelry making while attempting to incorporate my own designs. The techniques that I have been focusing on are casting and stone-setting. For casting, I have been experimenting with both lost-wax casting and sand-casting in order to create thoughtful, one-of-a-kind works. Casting is often the best method to use when creating organic designs. My designs include snakes and historic Viking imagery that is often easier to create by carving wax and manipulating sand molds.

The inclusion of precious …

Valuations Achieved At The Sale Of Royal Jewels From The Bourbon Parma Family, Reka Szterenyi

MA Theses

The auction of the Royal Jewels from the Bourbon-Parma Family is considered iconic. It took place as an evening sale at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva, on November 14, 2018 amid great interest from collectors and the media alike. It comprised a hundred lots from the collection of the Bourbon Parma Family, several of them with royal provenance. The most important pieces were ten objects that are believed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette’s personal jewelry collection. The white-glove sale achieved a total price of $53.1 million (CHF 53.5 million). This was a new record for a royal jewelry auction, …

Representing The Ali'i And Monarchy: Dress, Diplomacy, And Featherwork In Hawai'i, Tess Anderson

Scripps Senior Theses

When Native Hawaiians and haole (foreigners) first met, both participants belonged to fashion systems unknown to the other, composed of different materials, styles, tastes, standards, and construction techniques. As the outside world was introduced to the cultural heritage of Hawaiian hulu manu (featherwork), kūkaulani (chiefly fashion), and European skewed conceptions of Hawaiian indigeneity; the ali‘i (chiefs) and kama‘āina (commoners) received and adapted to incoming materials, technologies, and information. When these encounters transitioned into “prolonged contact” and settlement, dress and adornment proliferated in new ways. Analyzing the case studies of historic pā‘ū, holokū, ‘ahu'ula, and military uniforms shows the significance of …

Art As Contextualization: Using Visual Communication As Christian Missions In Native American And Alaskan Cultures, Hali Gehring

Senior Honors Theses

Contextualization is an important aspect of Christian ministries and cross-cultural missions to create sustaining churches around the world. There are many forms of communication that use contextualization for religious purposes, such as theatre, story, art, and dance. These important forms of communication can be used with cultural practices to contextualize the Gospel to different people groups. For Native Americans and Alaskans, artistic works that promote cultural heritage are highly regarded. A beadwork piece that explains the Gospel could be a creative way to contextualize to Native American and Alaskans.

Stone Monuments Of Northern Lake Eyasi Basin At Olpiro, Oldogom And Olbili Sites In The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania: Revisited Perspectives, Musa S. Mwitondi, Pastory Bushozi, Albert S. Mjandwa

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Despite the outstanding contribution of Lake Eyasi Basin to human origins and cultural development from the middle stone age (MSA) to the historic period, other archaeological occurrences in the area with outstanding cultural values such as burial cairns, stone enclosures, megalithic walls, and dolmens have remained less emphatic among scholars. Although these are widespread across the cultural landscape of the region, yet they have attracted little scientific attention. These stone monuments were first reported in the 1960s and 1970s, and precisely correlated to the agricultural terraces of Engaruka, the astonishing late iron age agricultural scheme of northern Tanzania. This study …

Hybrid Garment, Diya Wang

Masters Theses

What is in the overlap between jewelry and clothing? Does the combination of jewelry and apparel create a new, significant,way of seeing art?

Hybrid Garment is a series of work that explores the overlap between fashion and Jewelry. As an artist and designer, my background and training prepared me to dissect and rebuild the relationship between and potential of jewelry and garments. The potential of hybridity serves as a methodology to combine and conflate the two disciplines.The essence of this work carries the idea of inclusivity, it encourages people at all levels to wear them. In addition, anyone wearing it …

A Hypothetical Debate, Talya Kantro

Masters Theses

A heated argument is taking place, and has been for thousands of years. We deliberate to voice our own opinions, to prove what others have declared, and to validate the past. Judaism – a culture bound by millenia of traditions – follows countless rigorous customs and laws. These traditions are strictly adhered to, and observant members of the faith go through great lengths to show their devotion to their beliefs. Although these laws and customs generally remain uninterrupted over the generations, they can occasionally be challenged by new ideas, new concepts, or new technology. Debates form around these novelties, and …

The Reenactment : "Object" As Performance, Yue Jiang

Masters Theses

Throughout history, women have endured many obstacles placed upon them in both the private and public spheres. Women are pressured to achieve an ideal beauty standard and the expectation to fulfill the obligation of traditional domestic roles. As a 23-year old Chinese woman who daily faces these pressures, I intentionally critique them using my body as the site and the pressure as subject. Through acts of performance, using handmade and mass-produced objects consumed daily by women, I highlight the insidious pressures and expectations placed upon women’s bodies. By utilizing the format of photography to document the discomfort of “wearing” or …

Futuristic Communication, Haotian Yang

Masters Theses

In today's world we can no longer separate our lives from technology. It is that fluidity between the human world and the technological world that my work explores. Technological development has brought us great convenience in communication. The existence of programs like Zoom allows people to work and socialize remotely. Instagram, Twitter and other social networks allow people to share their lives anytime and anywhere with a simple snap of a picture and push of a button. The emergence of mobile phones allows people to communicate at any time. Science and technology continue to develop and these developments provide many …

Security Blanket, Danni Xu

Masters Theses

I draw upon the stories of people who have experienced nostalgia to identify a sense of belonging to home. I create familiar objects specific to the stories of diasporic peoples to establish a connection between myself and the viewer or wearer, even when I am not present. As a former hotelier adept at initiating conversation, the goal of this work is to serve as a communication mediator, a way to find mutual interests among people in a proactive way.

This thesis addresses the following questions: Can jewelry build networks of connection across time and space? How does the format of …

An Aesthetic Of Authenticity: The Use Of Turquoise In American (Counter)Culture, Madison Staples

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Turquoise is a distinctive part of the material culture of the Indigenous tribes of the American Southwest, including the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo peoples. The stone, particularly its color, is situated within complex systems of culture and meaning for each tribe, but the physical nature of material culture makes such pieces accessible for outsiders to borrow, buy, or steal. The aesthetic of the southwestern Indigenous tribe, traced in this paper through the use of turquoise, has been drawn upon by non-Native Westerners pursuing authenticity in their American lives. My findings suggest that true authenticity is marked by authentic engagement, …

A(M(End)Ing))) Expectations, Renee Holliday

Graduate Theses

This thesis statement explores how my intersectional identity as an artist and mother with a working-class background are intertwined, and how that upbringing has influenced each of these roles and my actions and interactions with those around me. The first part of this thesis A(m(end)ing))) Expectations serves to highlight the diverse experiences that helped form the basis of my identity while also exposing many of the unhealthy societal and familial expectations that are often placed upon women. The exhibition YES/AND is the culminating work of how these varied identities, combined with contemporary themes of feminism, affects my artistic decisions and …

Sweet Fruit, Daa Guy-Vasson

Theses and Dissertations

The writing and images in Sweet Fruit are an exploration of my creative works. In the first section, memory, making, and poetics come together to help the reader feel the nuances of my experience. In the exhibition works section, images allow an extended look at the work. Accompanying text describes the relevance of my childhood and my parent's Caribbean upbringing to my creative practice.

Ballad Of A Bootlegger, Sarah K. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Roll in the soot of fires-gone! Purification through osmosis(?). They don’t pass onward so you can pass on the recognition. Learn the lesson, you bootlegger! This is necessary; you must use your hands and forge onward. Shit fire to save a match and light the birthday candles, time will pass before you’ve finished blinking so take another sip in and breathe easy child-- loss is part of life and no one can ever take that away from you (not that you’ve feared this). Slip the ring on your finger and marry to a practice of breaking perceptions of rules that …

Beside| |Between, Brooke J. Armstrong

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Beauty and the grotesque both induce physical sensations in the body. Pleasure and displeasure are two points on the same line. They are not mutually exclusive. Like the body and the vessel, like the self and the other all things exist in reciprocity. The capability of holding brings agency, breaking down perceptions of of subject-object relationships. The works presented in this paper represent a merging and a transformation of perceived separate entities. Craft history and processes inform the work present in the thesis exhibition, Beside| |Between.