Who has not seen them and gawped - those delicate figures with their aesthetic and balanced movements? Rope-artists !!
The way we handle the Mokume Gane techniques makes us feel like artists, and our work is comparable to high-wire dancing....
Why?
The acrobat moves with ease on the high-wire, he nearly seems to be floating in mid air. But what looks like airiness to us requires immense physical effort and concentration.
Our pieces of jewellery are not chunky, but small and cuddly, often filigree. But the working process often resembles a show of strength. The material is forged (sometimes down to one tenth of its original size), it gets twisted and even reversed.
Just as an acrobat cautiously puts one step before the next, we cautiously approach the piece of jewellery we already see in front of our mental eye.
Each single step demands concentration, exact balance and forsight of how the pattern may change.
We are jointly elaborated in a dialogue with our piece of art. The Mokume Gane technique highly stresses the metal. At times the material even threatens to tear, and the layers begin to separate from each other. A great deal of experience is needed to be able to feel how far one can "go". How much can be expected from the work piece? And how much must one expect in order to achieve the desired shape? This means that we - just like the high-wire circus artist - always have the abyss right in front of us. If we take one wrong step, like glowing or forging for to long a time - we can overstrain the material, and the piece of jewellery might be lost for good!
Each one of us has accumulated lots of experience. Every one of us has also experienced frustration with Mokume Gane. We all learned the hard way, but we can't help wanting the thrill again and again. Like the artist who will climb up to the rope even after he might have broken a leg, we need the walk on the wild side with this technique. It seems like this type of high-wire performance is extremely enthralling for us...
Let yourself be captivated by the charm of Mokume Gane...
text: Anja Wiebelt
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