Geometric jewellery: simple and complex
Metal jewellery is itself a materialized geometry. A chain with a pendant is two straight lines with a pendant at the intersection, a hoop on the wrist is a circle. A brooch is often a circle, and you will see ball earrings among the jewellery of a variety of peoples (matured to metalworking).
For a long time, people have used all kinds of haberdashery “trifles” – round buckles, brooches, bracelets, fastening sleeves, various shoe buckles. As a rule, purely utilitarian objects had a simple form and decor. Elements of geometry were clearly read in such decorations: broken or wavy lines, symmetrical or asymmetrical geometric shapes of inserts, metal, or both. The geometry of the accessories in those days was dictated rather by the need for ease of manufacture than by the imagination of the master.
In ancient times, the goldsmith learned geometry lessons at different times from different situations. In inanimate nature, these are discs of the sun and moon, wave lines, mountain peaks, cave crystals …
Living life carries symmetry, sometimes a proto-ornament. What are the colors of animal skins, patterns of butterfly wings, the shape and color of bird feathers and patterns of snake skins.
Jewellery geometry: the birth of style
“Geometrism” as a purposeful jewellery design appeared, perhaps, in the period of avant-garde and art deco. Aestheticization of mechanisms and machines brought into fashion defiantly geometric, sometimes asymmetrical jewellery. Abstraction and “mind games” turned out to be more important than the sensuality that dominated the Baroque and Rococo eras. A demand arose for new detached forms capable of expressing the sensations of a new era.
Where is the border that separates just jewellery of “some form” and products “in a geometric style”? For example, in today’s fashionable minimalist jewellery, geometric motifs are also often used.
If in an oval-shaped ring with a square stone-insert you first of all notice harmony and solidity, most likely this is a classic style. But if the first thing you pay attention to is geometric shapes, from simple and concise (circle, square, triangle) to more complex and asymmetrical, most likely you have a geometric style in front of you. The author deliberately focuses on forms, composing his story from them and directing your gaze from “external” to “internal”.
For example, we need purely geometric decorations. Those in which geometry is not crowded by botany and zoology with ornamentation.
Manifestations of geometrism: from extreme to harmonious
Geometry is the science of lines, shapes, and bodies. Armed with these concepts, it is possible to describe “geometric” jewellery.
Let’s say a square shape. In this decoration, square, airy frames organize a corridor of perspective, where a gem serves as a vanishing point. This set is an excellent example of symmetrical “geometric” in jewellery. The frame has turned from a functional element to the main artistic accent.
Today there are also 3D geometric decorations, which are quite attractive at times. When you look at the earrings in the second picture, you can imagine the rotation of the parabola. Although there are design solutions where geometrism almost crosses the sado-masochistic line.
And how nice it is to return to simple gold discs – just like in the indestructible Ancient Egypt. But there are those who are not looking for simple solutions. Geometry on the verge of constructivism, asymmetry, broken lines – this is the “sharp form” of geometrism in jewellery. The synergy of inserts of different colors, frames of different setting methods and different shades of gold give this set an extravagant artistry.
Obviously, men’s tie clips, cufflinks, signet rings are most of all inclined towards the geometric style. But in women’s jewellery, geometric shapes are multiplied, joining into a prickly elegant lace. Such jewellery is universal – as, in general, geometry itself.
