All for the Mountain
A jewellery designer I came across, Carly Margolis seems to have a very interesting view on narrative and her output. I am not personally completely sold by the finished pieces but her approach excites me. Working predominantly in metal work, Margolis creates these fusions of futuristic,  apocalyptic, new age, sci-fi with a hint of a past tribal influence visions. Each collection having its own clearly defined chronicle.

I also really like her drawings, although am unsure of what this one is to represent, I like to pretend it is a preliminary drawing before the creation of a jewellery piece, but I fear it is not.

"They are meant to resemble miniature kingdoms"

Her website is also really visually pleasing and complements her work. The way her pieces have also been photographed and digitally styled I feel also represents her narrative. Her jewellery pieces hand crafted, age old traditions yet showcased in a very digital forward facing manner.



Separate point, separate artist, a diy aesthetic

Marolis, C. Design Drawing. All for the Mountain. [Online image] [Accessed on 16 October 2013]  http://allforthemountain.tumblr.com/

Marolis, C. Elevators. All for the Moutain. [Online image] [Accessed on 16 October 2013]
http://allforthemountain.tumblr.com/

Botanicas

Botanicas
Fabulous shops selling ointments, rosaries, statutes, medicinal herbs, holy water, charms, thousands of year old recipes for, incents and candles. Like a gigantic shrine to spirituality. Look into Tarot Cards.

There is an element of magic that I am most intrigued by. Starting to research into other types of shrines and religions when I stumbled across folk religion. Maybe something I should probably have come to the conclusion of sooner.

Symbolism
The sun, the creator. The moon. The lotus flower, an emblem of beauty no matter what are the odds, an emblem of female sexuality. The flying fish, a space to dream. Garlic, to warn of evil. Goldfish for goodluck. Needs to be furthered.

To create a Rosary out of peas.. a seed of the earth. Peas disguised. Or maybe not disguised peas explored.

Moving forward
Towards the end of last week I started to get a bit lost the work was not matching up with the narrative. I think the whole narrative got a bit tired.

Symbolism and Charms.

What makes something spiritual? What makes something precious? Time is precious, does that make something spiritual? I want to explore the idea of making my own symbolic charms, an edited spiritualism.

Something I need to be wary off, I find both the narrative and the making to be very important to my practice but I can have a tendency to let both aspects run their own paths, getting carried away forgetting to interlink them. I am a little concerned I have started to do this already, in terms of narrative I have been exploring into the Ramekien epic and starting to look at editing my own symbolism but in terms of making I have been focusing on the charms element of my project. I really need to ensure that both elements are moving forward together.

To begin

To start my advancements into the idea of the spirit and the charm I decided to look at an object that I bought back with me from my travels. To see if i could visually dissect and imitate it, then giving me  the skills to build.
From a street seller in Bangkok we came across these "lucky" necklaces, where he had taken a series of charms, precious stones and Buddha offerings, created a sort of cage like pocket, a safety net, for which the object to sit in, before using a macrame technique to create the fastener of the charm. By firstly imitating it I could then move on to try it out with different materials and colour combinations. Looking at using wire, plastic ribbon and embroidery thread.

Practice

Lets begin with some notes from my summer project, a written diary of scribbles of little nothings that I experienced and felt whilst traveling around parts of Southeast Asia. The backbone of which has formed my intrigue for this project.

Deities Shrines and Talisments
Southeast Asia, Buddhism and religion
Offerings and Sacrifices? Orange flowers? Offerings to the buddha.
Candlesticks and incense?
Drangons and Elephants?
Palm readers and fire eaters?
Demon explosions, catch a falling star.
Mythological landscapes, A space to dream.

Ancestoral Tombs and Demon Gates.
The unicorn a protector?
The spirit and the spiritual.
Greenery is important, an offering of life?
I like bearded trees.
A makeshift sensibility. A diy ethic.

Whats hiding in the jungle? Tigers and forest spirits.
Explore what the bird house type things are.
House spirits and fire dancing
Its about sound to.. wind chimes and chanting
Windchimes and bells.
Bells and gongs. How to make a bell? A subtle tinkle.

The contrast of the spiritual and the evil.
Stretching hands demon and sinner.
Stretching out of hell. I like the stretch.

Flying fish. A three dimensional world.

The above is an edit of thoughts. A plucked version of my journal. From this I have been able to pick up points of notice that I want to explore further back in the real world.

Spirit Houses
Something that really caught my attention was "the bird house type things". Spirit houses, you see them everywhere around Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. A shrine to the protective spirit of a place. They are fabulous creations, little houses on stilts. They are considered a very important ritual and vital in the success and happiness of a place. The idea is for the spirit to live within and what really intrigues me about it is how they fit it out for that purpose. Figurines of caretakers, dancers for entertainment, elephants and horses for transportation and pets are all placed inside. As well as frequent offerings of flower garlands and food.
To build a spirit house. I like the steps that run up to the house. I like the thought of a spirit living inside.


Religion 
The religion whilst we were traveling around I did not quite understand, especially whilst in Thailand. I was aware that the country was predominantly Buddhist but I didn't quite understand. In hindsight I have now learnt that it seems to form into a collaboration. Animism is an old religion, the belief that everything has a spirit, there to help or to hinder humans, therefore to succeed in life the spirits must remain appeased. This is still evident in Southeast Asia, in the spirit houses and the wrapping of trees and vehicles and long boats. It is all beautifully colourful, offerings crafted in a makeshift sensibility. There is also the presence of alot of Hindu iconography as Hinduism has been important in the country in various stages of its past. (A point I am keen to follow is the story of the Ramakien which is a Thai version of the famous Hindu Ramayana.) Therefore Hindu deities are also worshiped in Thailand alongside Buddhism. Gods such as Ganesha, Shiva and Inda appear frequently. It is this collaboration that so interests me, a collaboration of individually beautiful deities but together a new iconography, a beauty for the eyes. I want to explore this idea of collaboration further.


To move froward.
Offerings
I want begin my exploration with looking at offerings.
The main offerings i observed were flower garlands, figurines, incense, candles and food. Offerings made out of accessible materials, accessible to all. The beautiful flower garlands constructed out of flowers and folded ribbon. Making beautiful ribbon star bows. We were given a flower garland which was made out of polystyrene balls, plastic string and flowers. Something so simply and cheaply crafted that looked so beautifully effective. It is this pursuit of makeshift materials and techniques I have began my experimentation into. Starting with the construction of ribbon bows and the knotting techniques used to make friendship bracelets, (another simple yet effective way of creating). Looking at all these individual techniques with the hope of a build and collaboration.