Blombos Ring series | 2008
Found objects, silver, thread, shell, tourmaline, flocking and gold leaf.
This series consists of five rings in five different ring boxes. As a South African and a jeweller I am fascinated by the fact that some of the oldest jewellery known to man, a set of shell beads (Nassarius Karaussianus), was found at Blombos on the coast of South Africa.
Once, while on holiday in a nearby town, I went on a hike to Blombos beach. There I happened to find an old washed–up ring box and wondered: “Could this box have belonged to the same person who owned the shell beads?” Obviously not, but this object worn out and faded by the sea with its endless possibilities of whom it could have belonged to and what jewellery it once contained, fascinated me.
I made a ring to accompany the box out of found objects; a ring shank with a setting that has lost its stone, a single studded earring, a shell and some gold thread. The rest of the rings in this series are variations and different interpretations of the first ring.
The shell I used has a significant value to me. My mother and I refer to this type of shell as a “gaatjie skulpie” (hole shell) because it has a natural hole in the middle. When I was younger we use to pick-up hole-shells to string as a necklace. This resulted in my association with the hole-shells as my very first “jewellery making” experience.
