Monthly Archives: December 2013

Kristopher Leinen

During the Industrial Age, artists rebelled against machine-produced products by hand-crafting exquisite works of art. Today, computer aided design (CAD) is a primary force in industrial production.

However, instead of rebelling, Kristopher Leinen uses Texas Tech’s School of Art CAD-based software to serve his artistic inspirations. He combines technology and hand crafting to create award-winning jewelry.

His “Garden of Eden” hair comb won the 2012 Niche Award in the Student Sculpture to Wear category. The Tree of Knowledge is made from sterling and argentium silver, 14k white and yellow gold, garnets, rubies, and diamonds.

“The comb is worn on the crown of the head as if reaching towards the heavens… This piece was created to empower the wearer… Simultaneously, it is meant to remind the viewer of the lure of temptation,” said Leinen.

Another comb in Leinen’s collection is “Up-Rooted.” It was also made in 2012, using Argentium silver, 18k gold, cocobolo (a tropical hardwood), acrylic, tsavorite garnets, white diamonds, and blue diamonds.

Leinen believes one has to balance concept and craftsmanship in order to give a piece of jewelry its unique voice. “I don’t know if anybody ever achieves it intentionally and purposefully and locks in on it, but through growth and time, I am starting to develop my own language and a way that my pieces can speak for themselves,” he said.

I think his language and the balance in his jewelry is extraordinary. As brooches can also be worn as hair ornaments, I will end this presentation of Leinen’s work with a piece made in 2010, “Fruit-Flower Brooch.” Materials: Brazilian kingwood, pink ivory wood, sterling silver, 14k gold, copper, and brass.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine our Resource Library and these books:


Inspired Jewelry

The Sourcebook of Contemporary Jewelry Design

Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective

Stanley Hill, Sr., and Seneca Iroquois Combs

By Kajetan Fiedorowicz

Many contemporary tribal artists reach to their nations’ historical sources for inspiration, which provides for a certain continuation of tradition. However, they do not always admit that reference. This makes the process of “joining stylistic dots” much harder, but not impossible.

The comb presented below, carved c. 1977 by Stanley Hill, Sr., (Mohawk Clan) is an interesting and competently executed interpretation of an ancient Seneca Iroquois antler comb that dates back to the late 1600s.

This carved and incised comb depicts two wolves, clan symbol of the Wolf Clan. They stay on the roof of a cosmic longhouse that symbolizes the political structure of the Iroquois Confederacy. Within the longhouse, three human figures squat in a so-called “hocker” position, which many women in traditional societies assume when giving birth. However, these figures most probably represent the two eldest brothers of the Iroquois Confederacy, representing the Seneca, Onondaga and Mohawk nations.

Here are two other effigy-related examples from the The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection, which resides at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

The first depicts two wolves facing each other without other imagery, and dates c. 1660 – 1675.

The second is a Seneca Horse Effigy Comb, made c. 1670 – 1687 from moose or elk antler. It was found in the 1930s at the Ganondagan State Historic Site, also known as Boughton Hill, in the town of Victor, Ontario County, New York. The museum speculates that the comb’s image of the single horse may relate to the introduction of European horses in Seneca country in the late 1600s. This seminal event turned many tribes into horse cultures.

An excellent piece was found buried with a Seneca shaman woman during the construction of an upscale neighborhood in Toronto. It dates from the late 1600s when the area was the Iroquois city of Teiaiagon (crosses the stream), a land with a river of dangerous rapids. On the comb, engraved lines connect three shapes, or characters — Mishipescheu (a water lynx with the tail of a rattlesnake), a bear, and the shaman. The themes are continuity of man and spirit, and protection.

Last is a comb from my own collection to close this story for today.

An exciting and mysterious World of Combs…

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please see our Resource Library and examine these books:


The Iroquois Trail: Dickon among the Onondagas and Senecas

The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca

An Address, Delivered Before the Was-ah Ho-de-no-son-ne or New Confederacy of the Iroquois Also, Genundewah, a Poem