The “NUANCE” Wearable Art Series of Brooches Made From Hand-Cut Paint

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

Could I, perhaps, make brooches that looked more like conventional jewellery? Not by using metal of course – I wanted to use paint. I wanted to cut paint & create mini-sculptures. Would that be possible? Feasible? What about the economics? How would these one-of-a-kind pieces be priced? Would my clients be excited with such work or would they think that I was re-inventing the wheel? What would a piece even look like?

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Those are the things I was thinking of before I began experimenting with actually preparing the paint, figuring out who to cut the paint and assembling each tiny piece on my circular wooden canvases.

I had grand plans of making two sizes in each style. One 2 inches in diameter and one 2.5 inches in diameter. Possibly a series of 12 – 14 paintings and maybe even an 8 inch canvas.

I quickly abandoned those planes when I was making my second 2 inch piece and had already developed callouses on my fingers. I tried a couple of variations of the gold and copper pieces, using gold foil and copper foil and decided to make only seven pieces, all of them 2 inches in diameter.

Throughout the process of creating the pieces, I could not stop thinking about jewellery artisans and how they could possibly work with metal and precious stones at such a small scale. A newfound respect.

I focused on some of the metallic acrylic paints in my possession. I could have acquired more but I’m more eager to “get it out” than to plan and wait & launch when it is the right time. I wanted to focus on the gold and the silver but the copper and the blue and green looked enticing enough for me to wear on my own self, so why not.

Continually reminding myself to photograph some work-in-progress images, continues to be a task that I’d rather not have. I want to make the pieces and get them out onto my store PRONTO. Like Alexander Hamilton who was always writing like there was no tomorrow.

The “NUANCE” Concept

Each piece of hand-cut paint has subtle differences. When pieces with subtle differences are assembled together on one brooch, the parts make a whole piece of jewellery that would otherwise not have come about.

Like each person on the planet has subtle differences in their beliefs and opinions and yet we get together and co-exist because we have nowhere else to go.

Sometimes we have extreme differences amongst each other but our fundamental needs remain the same across the board, no matter what our skin color is, what our sexual orientation is, what our geography of origin is.

The initial visual identification is around scales / fish and even a “a small piece of mermaid”. However, I continue to come back to layers – like an onion. In so much of our online discourse, what seems to be lacking the most, is nuance. The greys disappear amidst the hardline blacks and whites. I do agree that in some cases one needs to know the difference between right and wrong as-is and there is no nuance but that isn’t how we cohabit the planet peacefully.

The Paintings

MODULATION

DEGREE

FINE DISTINCTION

GRADATION

VARIATION

SUBTLE DIFFERENCE

OVERTONE

The two copper and gold pieces are different from each other and if I was a client, I would have liked to see them together to be able to decide on the one I would like to acquire. Hence the following two photographs.

Styling the Brooches

As with any styling, there are no rules. You do you. I had shared some ideas for a festive look with the brooches from the “IN TIME” Art Series, which you can see here. It is the winter season now and one can use a brooch to clamp together two layers of a shawl or stole wrapped around the shoulders.

If the piece you like is already sold out, you can reach out to me either on WhatsApp (+919910022104) or email n@naina.co and I can put together something specially for you. It will not be the same as the sold out piece because that will not be possible – each layer of paint is different, each piece of hand-cut paint is different and then the way the pieces are assembled will also bring in some variations.