Development of Ideas

During the time I have been working on my final major project, my idea has developed into something I least expected it to. My idea originally was to focus directly on tribal jewellery, after looking at the collection of tribal jewellery in the Pitt Rivers Museum, the unique materials and designs of them caught my eye. I was drawn to these aspects and instantly wanted to put my own twist on them. My idea was to westernise these pieces, as acceptable everyday wear. However, after having worked with metal, I knew this was the material I wanted to use. The restricting aspect of the metal pieces I made intrigued me. This aspect is also very common in the jewellery tribesmen wear, especially the brass coils worn by Burmese women. I began to look at restriction on each body part, having strips of metal going across various joints, making the wearer unable to bend their arms/legs etc. In my designs I included leather, as the contrast of surface and colour would compliment the piece as a whole. I became aware that this type of jewellery could be misinterpreted, making it more sinister than intended. Currently I am revisiting some of the ideas I had previously, still having the base of the piece the same, however I would also include other details such as; multiples of one object and other various materials used by the Aboriginal people of Australian, such as; feathers, hair, leaves, etc.