The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA put up and exhibit The Tsars’ Cabinet, which highlighted two hundred years of decorative arts under the Romanovs, from the time of Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century to Nicholas II in the early twentieth century. This exhibit was created from the Kathleen Durdin Collection and organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in collaboration with International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.. It had more than 230 objects that were used by the Imperial family or would illustrate the styles that were prominent during their reigns. I was offered to design a collection of jewelry to compliment that exhibit and that would represent the styles worn by the imperial family and the Russian nobility. I did a lot of research and it turned out that up until 19th century discovery and successful production of gold, silver and semiprecious and precious stones, Russia was a pearl country - in 17-18 centuries every women in Russian used a lot of pearls for decoration of jewelry, accessories, clothing, headpieces, even boots using pearls that were found in abundance in 150 Russian Northern rivers and lakes. Later, in 19 cent. precious and semiprecious stones from Ural mountains were used in combination with pearls to create stunning masterpieces. On all official portraits of the Russian royalty they are wearing long strands of pearls. So I created a collection of pearl jewelry with a contemporary twist - strands of pearls of graduated length (16 to 45), combined with metal work and semiprecious stones - garnet, black onyx, labradorite and Swarovski crystals. Strands can be worn separately or together in different combinations. Inspiration for that collection was also the tradition of Russian embroidery on velvet using silk, metallic threads, abundance of pearls and semiprecious cabochons. Following the modern trend of bib jewelry I created one-of-a-kind pieces exclusively for this exhibition, trying to make it contemporary and wearable with the elements that are unique for Russia - the shape is reminiscent of the Russian Onion Domes on Orthodox Churches, and of the Russian traditional headdress Kokoshnik. They were embroidered on velvet with glass seed beads and pearls. Flower motifs were used in embroidery of nobility garments (peasants usually used primarily geometric patters or stylized berries in embroidery and garments were made of white hand woven fabric). I incorporated flowers together with a lattice pattern that was so often used in different decorative objects in old Russia - K. Faberge used it in jewelry and in his famous Easter eggs, it was used to decorate porcelain (there was a platter decorated in lattice work at The Tsars’ Cabinet exhibition), in embroidery and decorative art.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 05:53:03 +0000
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