Indian Gold Jewelry Designs Biography
Source(google.com.pk)Sterlé was a major award winning designer notable for his innovative approach to jewelry design using baguette-cut diamonds and colored gemstones in sweeping, curling lines. His love of nature played out in his favorite motifs: birds, flowers, leaves, arrows, feathers and bows. Sterlé’s designs epitomized the dynamics of 1950s design and were wrought with great movement and energy. Aside from the sheer beauty and grace of Sterlé's work, his greatest contribution to the jewelry industry was the invention of a gold plaiting technique called Til d'ange, permitting the creation of fringes, manes, tails, and flower accents.
Born into a family of financiers and orphaned after his father’s disappearance during WWI, Pierre Sterlé learned the craft of jewelry from his uncle and guardian who owned a jewelry shop on the rue de Castiglione in Paris. He showed great talent and motivation and at the age of 29 opened his own workshop the rue Sainte Anne. There he designed and manufactured jewelry for some of the leading houses in Paris, among them Boucheron, Chaumet and Ostertag. Soon Sterlé established his reputation as a gifted jeweler and gained a loyal following. By1939 Sterlé produced jewelry exclusively for individuals.
In 1945 Sterlé opened a third floor boutique at 43 Avenue de l’Opera, near the Place Vendôme. He viewed himself as an exclusive designer, and therefore did not want to have a ground level boutique where his jewels would be displayed to the general public. Greeting his customers in the elite atmosphere of his exclusive boutique, Sterlé entertained and designed for leading fashion and society women of the day.
Sterlé created pieces that were considered revolutionary by his contemporaries for their creative originality and superior technical expertise. His favorite motifs included birds, wings, feathers, animals, and flowers. Sterlé designs were executed in a baroque, asymmetrical style and were typically embellished with a combination of precious and semi-precious gemstones. In 1957 Sterlé invented a gold mesh plating technique called Til d'ange which he used to create gold rope fringing.
Despite being an iconic jewelry designer in the 1940’s and 50’s, by 1961 Sterlé was facing financial difficulties and was forced to sell numerous designs from his inventory to Chaumet. He also sold a limited number of designs to be produced by Montreaux, a NYC jeweler. The following decade in 1976 Sterlé closed the business and joined Chaumet as a designer, later creating a line of “Oriental Style” jewelry for the firm.
Native jewelry maker Harvey Begay, is
expert in silver and gold casting
techniques and in setting precious and
semiprecious stones. Begay also reflects
elements from his Navajo heritage and the
Southwest in his jewelry.
Taking triangular patterns from
prehistoric southwest pottery, he adapts
them to a gold bracelet accentuated with
inset lapis lazuli and diamonds. He
interprets an abstract feather pattern
from prehistoric Mimbres pottery in a
silver concha belt; other jewelry reflects
Navajo spiritual figures called Yeis.
Begay learned silvermaking from his father, well-known and respected silversmith Kenneth Begay (1913-1977). For
much of his career, the elder Begay worked at the White Hogan, a Scottsdale shop. The younger Begay worked
there with him, while attending Arizona State University in Tempe in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although
Harvey Begay graduated with a degree in aeronautics, served in the U.S. Navy and worked in the private sector for
a number of years, he returned to jewelrymaking.
Begay was among those jewelers eager to experiment with nontraditional forms and techniques, and move beyond the
silvermaking techniques widely used by his contemporaries. To do so Begay, along with a few other young Native
American jewelers, studied with French jeweler Pierre Touraine. In the process, he learned new skills, including
diamond setting and lost wax casting. Today Begay uses techniques learned from both his father and Touraine,
never losing sight of his culture and heritage. Excelling in casting techniques, he substituted gold for silver in the
century-old method of tufa stone casting, and selected coral, an important item of trade in the prehistoric
Southwest, as the single setting for a bracelet he made in 1997. Copyright 2012
References
Bassman, T. Beauty of Hopi Jewelry. 1999.
Dubin, L.S. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment. 1999.
Foxx, J.J. Turquoise Trail: Native American Jewelry and Culture of the Southwest. 1993.
Frank, L. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868-1930. 1997.
Schaaf, G. American Indian Jewelry I: 1200 Artist Biographies. 2003.
Schiffer, N. Jewelry by Southwest American Indians: Evolving Designs. 1991.
Simpson, G. A Guide to Indian Jewelry of the Southwest. 1999.
Wright, B. Hallmarks of the Southwest. 2000.
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