Triptych

When I was a child, my grandmother used to read me old Russian fairytales from a beautifully decorated book in the Art Nouveau style. Except for the breathtaking pictures, every first paragraph letter and every margin was beautifully decorated. I used to look at that book for hours, absorbing every decoration and the magnificent atmosphere of magic and fairyland the book’s graphic artist managed to create. Some were scary, some were lovely, but all of them were captivating. 

I managed to find some pictures from this book on the web. The book was called „Piórko Finista Jasnego, Cud-Sokoła”.  The pictures show the Rider of the Dawn, Rider of the Noon, Rider of the Night and other adventures of a young girl, who had to go through a lot of pain to save her beloved man from death. 

When I grew up I discovered the world of insects. I came to a conclusion, that insects are also a bit lovely and scary, but captivating in the same time. They are the favorite theme in my artwork. 

In this piece I wanted to create a story about a fairyland with insects. The jewelry creates a scene, where all three pieces (bracelet, ring and the thimble) play a part. 

 The center of all is the ring – a magical flying island with a bottle of real honey. Such islands were a common theme in my drawings since I can remember. 

This landscape also reminded me of the scene from “Avatar”. The ring was supposed to look something like this:

Below is a close-up of the ring itself:

 The real honey is the most favourite thing for many insects. That is why it plays the role of a treasure. All the creatures in thiswork are racing to get it. Some of the insects are ridden by tiny people, who are also trying to get to the honey or are trying to protect the honey from others. It is a contest. It will be most likely won by the rider on the biggest beetle (bracelet). 

 

The rider of the butterfly (thimble) does not want to take part in the race, but doesn’t know that the Fate is controlling her destiny in this story. The Fate is represented by the face on the bottom of the thimble. 

 

I chose to highly decorate all jewelry pieces (including the honey bottle), so they resemble that Art Nouveau Russian book from my childhood. That is how I imagine a fairytale. I decided not to highly polish or highly oxidize the works, as it would drastically change the reception – from a story written in jewelry to a jewelry design. The pieces are kept in a pearl-white-gold color, so it would resemble some lightness and innocence of a children book. 

The silver jewelry is gold-plated, the insects are decorated with moonstones (flying beetles) and an amber (smaller beetle). The glass bottle was custom made for this design and engraved with a diamond drill to match the whole design. The flowers, butterflies and the top part of the bracelet are chemically coloured. The bracelet is also decorated with garnets. The bottom of the ring is adorned with an amber. 

Please pay attention to the details on the riders’ bodies – they even have belts and shirts 🙂 Also please notice the tiny man and his body language, who is trying to control a butterfly on a leash. All the flowers and people were coloured by a tiny brush with chemicals (that need parts of a second to turn from gold to black). Afterwards they all were polished with a tiny diamond burr to bring out the silver sparkling from the petals and small elements of bodies. 

I made a short video showing this jewelry from different sides, how to wear it. The perfect background music is the track from “Macross +” by Yoko Kanno. Unfortunately, Youtube did not allow me to link it to my video and I had to choose something else. But this song certainly shaped my imagination, because I listened to it over and over again when I was a teenager. It suits this work so much that I start to wonder how many things soak up in us during adolescence, shape our psyche, and then manifest in our personal creativity.

I encourage you to listen to this track, or preferably play it in the background while watching my short video. Together with it the work becomes more coherent (link below).

And here is the video itself, which fully presents the work – it is impossible to show it properly in the pictures due to its spaciousness. I encourage you to watch it:

 

This work is certainly one of the most important in my career and the most recognizable. It won me the Finalist title of the Saul Bell Design Award, which in the jewelery world is like being nominated for an Oscar. This is the most important award I have won in my life so far. In addition, it has already been presented many times, e.g. during:

• 2021 – group exhibition “Beauty Trapped in Time”, National Museum (Yunnan Province), China
• 2020 – Amberif – jewellery fairs, Gdańsk, Poland
• 2018 – Bijorhca Paris – the largest and most important professional jewelry fair in France
• 2018 – group exhibition “Beauty trapped in time” at the National Museum in China, Guizhou, China
• 2017 – Saul Bell Design Award – USA – the work was awarded the title of a Finalist as 1 of 5 works in the world
  
• 2016 – the work was awarded the title of a Finalist of the Bead Dreams competition, USA
• 2015 – post-competition exhibition “Silver Accessories Contest 2015”, Tokyo Metropolitan Artspace, Japan

The work also took part in a special photo session by Quality Pixels Photography in Great Britain (2017). The photo session was kept in a fairy-tale-fantasy atmosphere, built especially for this jewelry:

At the “Bijorhca” in Paris, “Triptych” aroused admiration – the photo of my hand posing in the Triptych against the background of the original sketch was published on the organizers’ Instagram as “Premium Selection” of the most beautiful works present at the fair. I present a screen from my facebook from 2018, where a notification was displayed.

And this is a picture from my phone, taken at the same time as the representative of Bijorhca Paris was taking his picture.

This work also became so popular that I was offered to be the part of the first book/compilation of the best contemporary jewelers: “DUODECI Paris”. The sketch which I used to create the “Triptych” was selected for the presentation of my person. DuoDeci also functions as a platform where I have created a profile https://www.duodeci.com/en/creators/jewel/iwona-tamborska

Currently, the work is on display in China and will be there until December 2021. You can see it in the video at 2:47 – 2:53