Create Awareness with Jewelry

Jewelry creates a dialogue between the maker, the wearer, and the viewer. The expression of emotional transmission is also realized through visual features of the piece based on the individualistic experience of the maker. Emotional transmission allows the wearer to pay attention to the requirements of the artistic work itself from the perspective of instinct and sensory experience. Through the transmission of emotions, the wearer can arouse relevant emotional factors to achieve resonance between humans and objects.


Makers usually work alone in their studio to create something unique. The final piece is then displayed in a gallery or museum, appreciated by a limited audience, and sometimes ends up in a museum as a piece of art rather than a functional object. Makers can broaden their perspective to consider issues beyond the studio, like Shari Pierce, who printed photos of 36 sexual offenders printed on silk, she claims to portray every convicted rapist living within a five-mile radius of her workshop at the time of its making. Also, Benjamin Lignel uses the potential of the badge and reverses the language of a price cut in a supermarket to criticize the price increase. [1] 


Shari Pierce, 34 Sexual offenders, 2011. Photo prints from transparencies, silk.


Benjamin Lignel, Raise (10 dollars), 2011. Steel, gold, acetate, paint.


The body is where the jeweler’s art resides. In fact, he or she is invited to participate, and the topic of jewelry is the bridge between them. Jewelry is closely linked to our clothes, serving as a public expression of our presence in the world. Like, if you take off a wedding ring to signal your availability, the skin underneath where the ring has been can be so soft that any astute interested party will infer the truth. For the wearer, guilt about indiscretions may haunt through the phantom memory of the absent ring. It is frequently only when a piece of jewelry is not worn, posed for a photograph, but used, moving with its wearer, becoming part of the wearer’s appearance, that the work can be judged, like when a wedding ring is worn. Jewelry becomes linked with the wearer’s identity, their view of themselves and how others view them, like Lauren Kalman in this picture. Without the wearer, jewelry doesn’t have this meaning and changes by wearing it.


Lauren Kalman, Common skin ailments like acne, cancer, and herpes are presented as jeweled infections, 2009. 


It is challenging for the maker to establish a relationship between the object and the wearer. This relationship depends on interaction and a meaningful Embodying the wearer’s creativity in the jewelry can also help the maker create a strong relationship and an emotional experience for the user. This interaction between the wearer and the viewer creates a profound connection and makes it a powerful form of expression and communication. As a simple example, the wedding ring encloses the ring finger and becomes an extension of one’s body.” it is as a sign placed on the outer sphere of the wearer´s appearance, it communicates to the beholder the status of the wearer (married or not, rich or poor).” [2] Otto Künzli’s necklace, made up of 48 wedding rings, is a poignant piece that raises thought-provoking questions about the fate of the couples who once wore them. The absence of these rings prompts reflection on the hopes and promises made during marriage and the reasons behind their discontinuation. The noticeable signs of wear on the rings remind the viewer of their previous owners, highlighting the disconnection from their original meaning and intimacy, and the absence of the wearer can impressively move the viewer. [3]


Otto Künzli, Kette. unknown year, 48 wedding ring, VG Bild-Kunst.


Jewelry has the special potential to carry a message that the wearer believes and can spread it to viewers. In other words, the aim is to enable the wearer to understand the message behind the jewelry and convey it to the viewer.

A pin is a good example of a tool for communication when words fail, like Madeleine Albright, the first US ambassador, who used the brooches to send messages through brooches and start communicating with viewers, so the interaction between the wearer and beholder is essential. For example, she wore one in the shape of a serpent when she met with Iraqi officials in 1994, after Saddam Hussein’s press published a poem calling her an “unparalleled serpent” because she criticized the dictator for refusing to fully comply with UN weapons inspections. Some jewelry, like the typical badge, carries a symbolic cultural reference, connecting its wearer to a particular group, like religious, political, patriotic, fraternal, military, professional, or sporting group. A badge represents belonging, or for a social example, a person who wears a red cancer awareness pin believes that awareness can lead to change.

Ribbon was created in 1991 by the visual AIDS artists caucus in New York. This red ribbon quickly became a symbol for recognizing the impact of the disease.” [4] A key element in this design was the condition that no individual be seen as its creator, that it remains copyright-free, and that it is never used for profit. Mike Carson, editor of entertainment weekly, said: "When somebody asked me, ‘Why do you wear that?’ I say:” It feels good to say the word AIDS out loud, not in a shameful way, not in a hushed tone, but as something we all think about and share with the rest of the world.” The AIDS Ribbon helped to bring into the subject of shame into public awareness." [5]


AIDS Ribbon,1991


An example of social uses of jewelry is made by Roseanne Bartley’s Culturing the Body 2002, which carried deep meaning. After the 2001 Tampa incident, Roseanne Bartley distributed metal and red thread tags with words like “un-Australian” and “queue jumper” stamped on them. These words had been used to victimize refugees on board the MS Tampa. People wearing these tags were asked to note the responses they received while wearing them. This act stood against using these words to blame the people who were helpless and could not defend themselves. With this ability to go everywhere (not only the gallery) by the wearer, this jewelry can also spread important messages for changing society. Aimed to bring the political issue into public discourse in Australia. She created three brooches based on common garden plants and tied the republic to the growing interest in communal gardens. The brooches were given away as prizes with the condition that recipients had to pass them on to the next interested person. Recipients could comment on their experiences as temporary owners on a blog. Mason’s project showed how jewelry can convey social messages outside traditional media. [6]


Roseanne Bartley’s, Culturing the Body, 2002.


Body-related objects like jewelry have this power to create nonverbal communication, establishing a direct dialogue between the wearer and the viewer, evoking diverse interpretations, and even initiating verbal communication.

Changing society may seem like a big goal, but change begins with the individual.
What do you think as a maker, wearer, or viewer?



Notes: 
[1]: Damian Skinner, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, LARK BOOKS, North Carolina, 2013, ff250 and Susan Cohn, Unexpected Pleasure, Rizzoli, New York, 2012-2013,196p
[2]: Julia Wild, Katharina Dettar, With this Ring, https://vessel-magazine.no/issues/5/the-outermost-layer/with-this-ring-an-essay-celebrating-the-symbolic-meaning-of-jewellery, (10.8.2024)
[3]: Julia Wild, Katharina Dettar, With this Ring, https://vessel-magazine.no/issues/5/the-outermost-layer/with-this-ring-an-essay-celebrating-the-symbolic-meaning-of-jewellery, (10.8.2024)
[4]: Damian Skinner, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, LARK BOOKS, North Carolina. USA,2013, p234
[5]: Damian Skinner, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, LARK BOOKS, North Carolina. USA,2013, 234ff
[6]: Damian Skinner, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, LARK BOOKS, North Carolina. USA,2013, 242ff



 

About the author

Niyousha sadat Moosavi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Software, and after several years working in IT, she fully turned to art, which had always been her passion. She founded her own brand in 2013, after which she began teaching wax-based jewellery techniques. During the pandemic, she launched Jawahercast, a Farsi podcast exploring the concepts and meanings behind jewellery, which is still ongoing. In 2023, she moved to Germany to pursue an MFA at Trier University (Idar-Oberstein), graduating in 2025. Her work emphasises the stories and meanings behind each piece, using jewellery as a medium to provoke thought and raise awareness about social, political, mental health and environmental issues. She has exhibited widely and recently received a sustainability award for her use of sustainable materials in jewellery.

Website: niyoushamoosavi.com
Email: neusha.moosavi@gmail.com