The Heart of Medusa

This necklace was made for an exhibition at the Yes Gallery (Poznań, Poland), entitled “Women’s Voice”. The idea was to present a female perspective on any topics they wanted to discuss.

 It is inspired by a sculpture by Forest Rogers entitled “Octopoid”. My narrative behind this work is a woman who is like Medusa – a mythical creature, even divine.

It is an allegory for how at the beginning of many relationships women are initially treated like goddesses, surrounded by respect and joy for their presence in someone’s life. Her body is made of a natural rock crystal, which I found during one of my geological expeditions in Lower Silesia. The whole design is kept in ice-white colors, except for her heart, which is made of rainbow Ethiopian opal. Rock crystal and opal are not very different structurally, because they are a compound of silicon dioxide. The rainbow colours in opal come from water molecules that are trapped between silica chains and refract the light that enters inside, creating a rainbow effect. These colours are a symbol of the spark in the soul of every woman, which constitutes their uniqueness and extraordinaryness. Medusa holds a piece of her heart in her hand, which she gives to someone. Women, no matter how divine their origin seems to be, give their heart away when they love. What happens to this spark and themselves often depends on the person who receives this heart: whether the spark dies and the heart becomes an ordinary rock crystal, or whether it survives and continues to be full of burning colours.

The pendant is composed with strings of natural rock crystals, which are arranged in the shape of ribs.

In their centre, the pendant looks like a crystal sternum, which together with the beads creates a crystal rib cage skeleton. Inside this chest is the real heart of the “Heart of Medusa”.

This jewelry piece was exhibited during the exhibition “Fairytales Written with Silver” (Toruń District Museum, Poland, 2023), “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (Amberif 2025, Gdańsk, Poland) and during “Cluster Contemporary Jewellery” (London, UK, 2022), GemGeneve (Geneva, Switzerland 2022, 2023), where it caught the attention of Tetiana Pfaifer (Jewellery Masterpiece Awards) https://www.instagram.com/p/CsMcUnRvOvI/ , which is an incredible compliment for me.

It also took part in a series of film impressions by Jaga Hupało entitled “Fragile Beauty”, shot at the Wawel castle (Kraków, Poland, 2024). It decorated Olgierd Łukaszewicz (in the role of the king) and Jolanta Litwin-Sarzyńska (in the role of the queen). Published in Musetouch Visual Arts Magazine (09/2023).

Dimensions: 14 cm x 3.5 cm, D. 4 cm; length of the string of stones 46.5 cm

Weight: 122.9 g + a string of stones

Silver 925