Ivory pets

In a flash these beauties may look like they were mass-produced, but they are most certainly not! Made from quality materials such as mammoth ivory and red laquer, the brooches were carefully designed by German Christoph Straube. They look very sleek, with their 'faces' in off-white and an alarmingly bright red colour used for their eyes. Every pet has its own unique expression, some more obvious animal-like, some almost human, and all incredibly cute.

Straube himself states on Klimt02: there is no object that exists purely on its own, it is always a part of a complex system. He regards aesthetics as a product of convention and evolution - the meaning of every object we look at is processed by our culture and perception.
I surely agree with him, and it is the reason why I am not the only one who thinks that they are cute.

The Ivory pets are part of the exhibition “Rare animals are the missing link” to be seen at ‘Galery Metal’ in Copenhagen, Denmark until the 4th of July.

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!

When I first saw this brooch, it made me smile. ‘Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup’ is the start of so many jokes. At the moment my boys love to tell jokes, to anyone who’d like to hear them, over and over again. Then I started thinking: is this a really a soup spoon? No, it must be smaller, more like a teaspoon. And is that really a fly? Well…..Yes, it is!
The Finnish jeweller Eero Lintusaari cast a dead fly into acrylic to be on display in this brooch. In real life, the fly, along with the rest of the soup, would be discarded very quickly, but Eero Lintusaari became intrigued by it. He loves the delicacy and fragility of the fly, which normally would hardly tolerate to be touched without decomposing. The fly gets magnified by the acrylic and at the same time the artist uses a smaller spoon, so the proportions are a bit off and the fly gets even more emphasized. This way, the wearer is drawn to the fly to get a better look at it’s delicate beauty. It looks like a gigantic fly in a little bit of soup.
I love a joke, but I would have reservations to wearing this one, since there is still a dead fly in there!

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!
Yes sir, this fly really knows good soup.

Eero Lintusaari is a member of Klimt02.

Sonya's scar jewel

A special jewel this week. Maybe a bit strange, but also very meaningful. When people experience something traumatic, the physical signs may show on their, or their loved-ones body. These scars are all different and very personal, just like the stories they tell. Even though they are not always visible, scars become part of them. It is their personal adornment, and it is now possible to transfer it into a golden jewel.

Artists Rachel Murawski and Liz Lessner got together with their friend Francesca who had overcome thyroid cancer, bearing the scar on her neck as a result. She was proud of the scar, a reminder of the positive outcome, but it started to fade. The creative artists decided to do something, not only to make their friend feel better, but also to help her deal with it. So, together they made the first scar-jewel.

Another example of such a scar-jewel is Sonya’s. Her personal story involves her brother who had surgery as a two-week-old baby. She says: “This scar represents pain and hope for my family and me. I wear it with pride.”
As you can see, the enormous scar across her brothers’ body was transferred into an elegant, almost botanical, but definitely recognizable, golden pendant.

The scarring experience can be hard to talk about, but when wearing a jewel like this, it becomes a lot easier. It gracefully stands out from other gold jewelry, evoking conversation. And unlike with the real scar, it is now the owners’ choice to wear it or not.