February birthstone: Amethyst and my love for the color
Amethyst is the birthstone of February, this purple beauty is one of the most well known semi-precious gemstone.
Purple is my favorite color. In many ancient culture purple symbolize rich and royalty. The origin is simple: purple dye is rare and expensive only those with money and power can afford. Even nowadays the color purple is associate with royalty, phases such as “born to the purple“ is still adapted today refer to someone born with high status.
My love of purple have nothing to do with its royal symbology. To my own logic purple is an ambiguous color. It is the combination of red and blue, the balance of two extreme: fire and ice, men and women, Yin and Yang...... Depends on the hue, purple can be a warm or cool color. A lavender purple offers a warm, feminine feeling; on a cooler shade raisin purple is a much more masculine color. My favorite shade is definitely Amethyst. To me it sits right at the middle. Not too hot, not too cool, perfectly right at the center between red and blue. (pic of shades of purple)
Image from Digital Synopsis
My artistic preference tends to favors ambiguous subjects. I rarely enjoy topics of black and white. With the gray and indefinite, I felt there are more room for interpretation. The exact same case with my love of purple and Amethyst, almost like the color is ever changing depends on its mood.
For the same reason of loving the ambiguity, when I design this bracelet Amethyst is my obvious choice for gemstone. The shape of the bracelet is in between feminine and masculine. It is much like an id bracelet for men, yet the long pea pod form is a feminine shape. Again for the same rationality of creating a gender ambiguous piece, I deliberately make the bracelet not too thin and not too chunky, just right at the middle.
Years of experience in commercial design has taught me to go with either female or male. If you made something ambiguous, statistically speaking it's always a tough-sell. With that in mind, I still made this bracelet, because what's the good of being an artist if you can't made something you want?
I called this bracelet “Purple Rain” for obvious reason. While I enjoy Prince's music, I don't see myself as a hardcore fan. But there is no one that come to mind with such an androgynous image (I sincerely mean the word in a positive sense). I wouldn't go so far saying this is a homage or tribute to the artist, I consider this as a personal reminder of the times I enjoy his music and performance.
#amethyst #amethyst bracelet #purple bracelet #February birthstone #purple stone
2018 Feb 9 by Morris