Fidelity, The Golden Fleece ring

Because I really like this piece, an update on the previous Furry ring-post, since The Golden Fleece ring will be exhibited from tomorrow! It al started when Giovanni Corvaja went on a journey to make the mythological Golden Fleece, instead of searching for it. A journey which required kilometers of hand-made gold wire, took 12 years of precise labour and resulted in great jewelry along the way (as to be seen in the Furry ring). Not an easy task as you can imagine. The Golden Fleece is sought after because it is said to bring good luck to kings and guarantees that their kingdom will endure forever.
This Ring was made in 2008 and consists of 104,272 single wires (2.085 km of wire in total). The tiny wires must be almost microscopicaly thin to create such length and still fit around a finger! This means the gold fur is super soft to touch. The ring symbolizes fidelity, something a lot of rings do, but the combination with the Golden Fleece makes this ring the symbol of a lucky, everything enduring love. This ring combines the aesthetic with the tactile and the conceptual, which I love.

Giovanni Corvaja has made a whole Golden Fleece collection and the jewelry pieces have all been chosen to represent eternal symbols: first there is fecundity (the egg pendant), then prosperity (the round brooch),fidelity (the ring) is the third piece of this collection, commitment (the bracelet) the fourth and finally strength and perpetuity of power (the headpiece). All of these have many other meanings as well. Of course these amazing pieces will be exhibited tomorrow as well.

The exhibition is part of the International Trade Fair,in Munich, Germany, in the frame of a special exhibition “Modern Masters”, Hall 1A, 11-17.03.2009. (Exhibiting the new collection in Munich is very meaningful for the artist, who celebrates 20 years since his first exhibition in the same place, in 1989.)

An extensive explanation of the whole Golden Fleece collection is to be found on Gionvanni Corvaja's website.