Drapery Jewelry Collection: The Story Behind the Design
The Drapery Collection was inspired by the movements of ballet dancers and the organic shapes created by their costumes - each layer of rippling fabric a visual reverberation of a sequence of movements. I have always been fascinated by the movement of fabrics in relation to the human body. Like a shadow, the shapes created by the fabric are defined by the body, but they take on a life of their own based on the material, shape, and movement of the person wearing it.
In dancers’ costumes, especially ones with free-flowing elements, the form of the fabrics is defined by the inherent material qualities of the fabric and further animated by the graceful lines of the dancer’s body.
With this in mind, I designed the pieces in the Drapery Collection as jewelry that captures the fleeting moments of dynamic tension between fabric and the body, frozen in time.
For this concept, I explored a design process that focused on the creation of an environment and external forces that would impact the resulting shape of each piece of jewelry. In this way, the jewelry was designed indirectly as opposed to being directly sculpted into a desired shape. The design process used software that simulates environmental forces (such as gravity and wind) along with material properties (such as stretchy fabric or dense concrete).
Each piece begins as a simple shape, such as a square, triangle, rectangle or circle, which is then draped along a chain in the virtual environment. Here is an animation of the Circle Plié Pendant showing the digital creation of the piece and the final cast metal pendant in 18 karat rose gold plated brass.
The jewelry collection uses this design methodology in the creation of bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces in gold, rose gold, and silver colors. Here is a photo of some of the gold pieces:
As further inspiration, here is an amazing visual study of the forms and shapes created by the movements of ballet dancers. Check out the video below!
