N-SynconArt: Maeshowe Jewellery Competition

To celebrate the Year of Architecture, Innovation and Design, Historic Scotland in collaboration

with Ortak Jewellery announced an exciting competition to design a range of jewellery

that reflected the history and mystery of Maeshowe, a 5000 year old tomb set in the

Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.
It was available to all creative students across Scotland with the winning design
being manufactured by Ortak, to then go on sale at both Edinburgh Castle and Skara Brae.

My story starts back in May when I picked up an entry form from a canteen table at Orkney College, little did I know then that I`d become the over all winner of this fantastic competition and

have my designs transformed from sketches on paper into beautiful pieces of jewellery.

Summary of my design process to jewellery production!

The project brief given by HES & Ortak was to design a contemporary but commercial range

of jewellery using key themes such as but not limited to, Neolithic life, Viking runes or

the Winter Solstice. The aim to reflect Maeshowe and it`s themes in a design which could include a necklace, earrings, ring and bracelet. The format was for the designs to be illustrated or sketched, and presented alongside a 500 word document detailing your inspiration and vision for the range as well as documenting your creative process.

Research and inspiration

Maeshowe is an iconic structure within the Orkney landscape and is illustrative of Neolithic society`s belief system and world views through it`s architectural form, alignment with the mid winter sunset and its association with the other monuments with in the area.
I went to visit Maeshowe, to `get a feel` of the area, it made me aware that people going
there today have the same visual experience as those of the past and because Maeshowe has `stood the test of time` we can still observe the phenomenon of the winter solstice, a time that was special to the Neolithic so I centred my design round these concepts.

View from top of MH with surrounding landscape , in the background
is the Stones of Stenness and Brodgar. (my own image)

Ariel view of MH (image from The History Hub)
http://www.thehistoryhub.com/maeshowe-facts-pictures.htm

Winter solstice from inside MH (image by C.Tait)
http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/index.html

I also understood the importance of the Barnhouse Stone with it`s alignment to MH

and introduced it into the design with a symbolic reference to the other monuments.

Barnhouse Stone looking towards MH (my own image)

Preliminary sketches

These are the initial sketches/notes and my way of visually exploring
the ideas/concepts of the final design.

Final design

After a number of weeks researching and doodling the finished design emerged with
a range of jewellery that consisted of a necklace, ring, bangle and 3 pairs of earrings
with the option to use oxidisation or enamel to enhance the design.

Drawing of oxidised necklace with Barnhouse Stone and jump ring fastener.
The jump ring had 12 points engraved to represent the calendar months.
The profile of pendant (bottom L) was to reflect the topography of landscape.

Example of enamel earrings using elements from necklace.

Suggested colourways to reflect the natural features
such as water, landscape and sunlight.

At the end of my entry form document, I made this statement "my design has been inspired by the circular form of Maeshowe, it`s status within the physical and symbolic landscape and their inextricable link with the winter solstice. The piece has layers of meaning that are the legacies of Neolithic Orkney which still can be experienced today. I see it as a piece to evoke the timeless relationship between then and now keeping alive the history of this wonderful landscape." and this basically sums up my inspiration and vision for the piece.

I emailed my submission to Historic Scotland and on the 4th of August, a panel of judges

declared my design as the over all winner of the competition. Needless to say I was absolutely delighted and in September the process of transforming my sketches into actual jewellery began.......

The end result

Ortak made a fantastic job of interpreting my drawings

to create these wonderful pieces of jewellery.

Below is a small example of range with 11 pieces in total......