Rough & Raw: A selection from the Coda Museum

From untreated wood, polished steel, tactile paper to brushed tin, hammered bronze and glass beads in iron settings; the exhibition Rough & Raw in CODA Museum shows a selection of objects that illustrate a diverse use of materials in jewellery design.

Although jewelery made of precious metals and precious stones has long been a reflection of wealth and status, jewelry from bronze, iron and glass has also been popular since antiquity. Gold and silver as material remains, however, reserved for the wealthy until the twentieth century. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that jewelery was designed for the first time to reach beyond the status symbol and from the twentieth century more and more experiments were done with unusual materials, although it will last until the sixties until these materials conquer a definite place in the jewelery design.