FUNCTIONAL AND ABSTRACT ART

Most human endeavors, including art, serve some function. The prehistoric pictograms found on rocks and caves show people and animals and tell a story. Medieval European paintings showed people and events concerning religion. In the periods following the Middle Ages portraits of people who could afford to commission them were painted as well as pictures of secular as well as religious scenes. The invention of the camera took away the function of the painting as a means of visiually recording people and events. But it also freed the artists from strict adherance to realism. First came the Impressionists whose drawings still contained realism but without strict adherance to color and form. Later, in the 20th Century, abstract art came on the scene, where a drawing was appreciated for its beauty without depicting anything or not looking to the casual eye like what it was depicting. Then the camera itself became art with more realism.

Jewelry, dishes, vessels, and other objects with a function other than art itself have been adorned with abstract art throughout the centuries going back to prehistoric times as well as with pictures of people, animals, and plants. Architecture serves the function of providing shelter but also can be art. Images have been carved into the walls of some buildings while others display their beauty abstractly.
Art must have some kind of beauty to be art. Beauty can be pretty or it can at times be a harsh beauty, but it should evoke an emotion of some kind other than its pure function.
See www.beadshaper.com/gallery for examples of handcrafted glass beads and jewelry art that are functional and often abstract.
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BEAD CROCHET

 

The word crochet comes from the French word for hook. Crochet is a method of weaving strands of material into patterns. It differs from needlework in that crochet uses one hook and needlework uses 2 needles. The earliest crochet-like work probably goes back to ancient times when a finger was used instead of a hook. Crochet was definitely known to have been done in the Renaissance times and became especially popular in the 1800s continuing to present times. Classical crochet uses yarn or similar fabric strands. Crafters began crocheting beads onto bags and clothing in the 1800s using yarn and other classical crochet fabrics. Recently jewelry artists have begun using silver and other precious metals to crochet beads into necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry.

An examples of bead crochet jewelry can be found at Princess Bead Crochet Necklace (beadshaper.com)

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WHITE

 

The color white is the complete presence of the color spectrum. It combines all the colors except black which is the absence of color. A white object appears white because it reflects all the light back to the eye (unlike a black object which absorbs all the light). Various cultures today and in the past have assigned various meanings to the color white. A white flag represents peace and surrender. In ancient Egypt, white was a color of authority. In many cultures white has represented holiness and purity. Hindu holy people wear white. White was the color of the gods of ancient Persia. Brides wear white in western cultures to denote virginity. In the Jewish religion, white is worn on the High Holy days to denote the sanctity of those days. White has denoted direction in some cultures, to the ancient Celtic people it represented south, to the Chinese west, and to some of the native Americans east.

You can see a handcrafted lampwork white glass bead pendant combined with various colors at lampwork glass pendant,(beadshaper.com)

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VIKINGS IN RUSSIA

Did you know that the name Russian comes from Scandinavia? During the Middle Ages, the Viking influence extended eastward into what is now the Ukraine. A Viking tribe called the Russ took advantage of disagreement between various local Slavic tribes and established a Kingdom centered around Kiev which ultimately grew into the Russian Empire.

Rose has a number of examples of Viking Knit jewelry on her website. One beautiful example can be found at SILVER VIKING BLUE BEAD WHITE DOT BRACELET (beadshaper.com)

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FASHION IN ANCIENT GREECE

Fashion in ancient Greece varied according to location and time period. The Greeks liked loose fitting clothing. During the earlier ancient times, women draped fabric around them. In the late period, women started wearing clothing made of cut pieces of cloth that were sewn together.The fabrics used were mainly wool and linen. Wool was more popular in winter and linen in summer. Wealthy people wore finer linen dyed different colors. For footwear, people generally wore sandals outside and went bare foot inside. The poorest people usually went barefoot indoor and outdoor. Jewelry was especially popular with wealthy people. It was passed on from generation to generation because of it's cost. Hair styles varied from short to long. Long hair was often braided. Light skin color was popular because wealthy women stayed indoors and were therefore pale from avoiding the sun. So, face powder that made the face look pale was very popular. Red iron oxide paste was used for lipstick. Red powder was used to give the cheeks a blush.

The luxurious necklace pictured above looks like it might have been worn by an ancient Greek woman but was actually handcrafted in modern times by Rose. You can visit it at Treasured Turquoise Silver Necklace (beadshaper.com) .

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PURPLE

The color purple is a mixture of blue and red. The earliest purple dyes came from Phoenicia about 4000 years ago and were extracted from certain shell fish. The purple dyes were very expensive because it took many shell fish to make a small amount of dye. Therefore purple became the color of royalty in various empires including ancient Egypt, then Persia, and then Rome among others. During the Middle Ages it was used in the cloaks of the highest clergy in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. An English chemist named William Perkins in 1856 developed a method for making synthetic purple dye from coal tar. This discovery made  purple products relatively inexpensive and therefore available to common people. 

You can find the color purple in a lampwork glass bead handcrafted by the Beadshaper at   PURPLE RIPPLE HEART GLASS BEAD (beadshaper.com)

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FASHION IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egyptian women were concerned with being fashionable. Clothing was made of light weight materials because of the warm climate. They usually used linen which is a cloth woven from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen came in various qualities. The nobility wore the finer more see through linen. The more coarse less expensive linen was worn by commoners. White linen was bleached by the sun. Other colors were produced with dyes. Women wore long tight gowns that were draped around their bodies, often pleated. Colorful jewelry was popular. Jewelry was worn as necklaces, collars, bracelets, in the hair, and on clothing. Footwear consisted of sandals.The sandals of the wealthy were made of leather. Poor people wore sandals made of less expensive materials or went barefoot. Cosmetics were popular in Egypt. Egyptian women were particularly known for their eye make-up. Perfumes were also popular. The fashions of ancient Egypt have inspired fashion over the many centuries since that time and continue to do so even today.

The necklace pictured above is not Egyptian. It was made by Rose. You can find it at ANCIENT EXOTIC PENDANT NECKLACE (beadshaper.com)

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