Intangible jewelry is my philosophical reflection as an jewellery artist. I want to explore intangibility through my profession as an jewellery artist. On this tab, I publish my philosophical reflections as articles from the topics I choose.
Since 2013, I have challenged people to think, what is intangible jewellery? There is no right answer to this question and it makes people think about intangibility and what is jewellery and what can it be? Everyone’s personal relationship with jewellery affects the answer. I’ve gotten a lot of confused faces, as well as great answers such as; love, landscape, feeling, poem, attitude, friendship, nature and so on. Now I’m starting to unpack this biggest question of my life, which fascinates me – and won’t leave me alone. With this reflections, I want to wake you up thinking about your real needs and be happy with what you have and learn to take advantage of what you don’t have. With my work, I want to emphasize the importance of intangibility and its possibilities in the world of materialism in jewellery art.
In society for an individual the importance of jewellery is enormous. Throughout history, we have had a need to adorn ourselves, regardless of social class. With jewellery you can for example complete an outfit, tell your own story, make people happy, use jewellery as a conversation starter, attract attention, improve your self-esteem. Jewellery can symbolize or communicate your status, for example with engagement and wedding ring, a badge of honor or you can emphasize your own origin, and so on. Jewellery can be very personal – or just an insignificant adornment. Jewellery belongs to people and has been a part of us and our activities for almost as long as we have been here. The activity around the jewellery enlivens and opens up the story of the jewellery and its origin, deepens the relationship between the wearer and the maker and it can open up the values of the jewellery and its maker. With the action, you can define what it does to the jewellery, and you can support your own thoughts and also make them public to others if you wish.
Intangibility is, according to the Cambridge dictionary: impossible to touch, to describe exactly, or to give an exact value. (1.) In materialism or the material conception of reality, reality is matter or energy. According to the materialist way of thinking, immaterial things such as thoughts and concepts, are in some way depending on material entities and can be described as their properties or effects. In idealism, or the spiritual conception of reality, reality is spirit or ideas. According to idealism, spiritual things, ideas or concepts make up the reality, and with the help of reason or mental effort, reality is reached or built in the human mind through observations and thinking. (2.)
Intangible equity is something that is in between physical objects and tangible objects: relationships between people, interactions, processes, systems, values, cultures, trust. (3.)
The topics for intangible jewelry has accumulated quite a bit in ten years, and all the time I get more ideas. My intention is to publish at least one article per year. To put it in a twisted way, I write new content regularly irregularly, when I have the time and I feel like it. If you want to know when I publish a new article, subscribe my newsletter by sending me a message: kirsi@littlebigwoman.fi.
The sources I used in this introduction text of the Intangible jewellery:
1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/intangible
2. Ismo Pentikäinen: Maailmankuva ja metafyysiset ongelmat: https://peda.net/id/057d1fa29ee (with my own translation, so there can be faults in that)
3. Malmelin Nando, Hakala Jukka 2007: Radikaali brändi. Talentum Media Oy, Helsinki (my own translation from this book)