Just last week, a new exhibit opened at the Met called Art of the Samurai - Arms and Armor 1156-1868. Learning the properties of metal and moving that metal is what jewelery making is all about. Those who make the Samurai arms are total masters of metal. So, this exhibit was interesting to me, from a jeweler's perspective.
The first half of the exhibit is mostly the blades themselves, shining in space, incredibly old and looking as though they were made yesterday. All I could think of while looking at them was to wonder at the knowledge and the strength of the person who forged them.
The second half of the show was the armor. This was interesting. Again, some of the pieces were hundreds of years old, but in perfect condition. Most were kept in families through many generations. It turns out, each Samurai had a special style of his own. They liked the bold, over the top look! Check out the guy in the gold necklace who is the poster boy for the show. His actual armour is in the show. The antlers are black lacquered and glittery! I just love the huge gold prayer beads he wore. They contrast with the black just right. This was a fun show to go through, opening my mind to different approaches to metal and ornament.
On the first floor there is a hallway that I often find myself in at the Met. It's on the way back to the Great Hall. There are some ancient pieces of Celtic and Frank items. I'm always drawn to a few of these and finally took a picture, so that I might be able to use them as an inspiration someday. The red is slivers of sliced garnets. I think these were from the 500s AD. Someday I'd like to make something like this. I'm starting to think about buckles and this would be a good start, don't you think?
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