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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Cthulhu Necklace
Swedish artist Sarah Burchill brings us this nicely done Cthulhu necklace crafted from silver and amber. The inset shot gives you an idea of just how detailed the tiny cameo is.
That’s a really nice piece of work. The silver portion reminds me of a Scandinavian modern piece, which are themselves based on ancient works. The amber portion is really the part that is interesting. It’s a cabochon amber with reverse intaglio work, which is really the opposite technique of a cameo. In this kind of work, you carve into the inside of a stone (often transparent or translucent crystalline or glass) to create the effect. If you cut from the back you get the effect of carving floating. With cameo work, you remove material from around the central figure to give a raised effect. Amber while it is rather soft, has the difficulty of being brittle and prone to fracture if there is undue pressure brought to bear in carving. I have to salute the maker of this gem in having a light touch and a refined sense of composition and detail. Because of the intaglio cutting, the Cthulhu actually seems to be floating in amber. I’ve got to say this is some of the nicest work I have seen in a while.
A couple of links of interest to the gem carver/collector: http://www.dpaglia.com/crystal3.htm and http://www.ancienttouch.com/roman-intaglios-cameos.htm note item 368 has a reverse intaglio image. The only downside to reverse intaglio is that it cannot be readily used as a seal.
1 comment:
That’s a really nice piece of work. The silver portion reminds me of a Scandinavian modern piece, which are themselves based on ancient works. The amber portion is really the part that is interesting. It’s a cabochon amber with reverse intaglio work, which is really the opposite technique of a cameo. In this kind of work, you carve into the inside of a stone (often transparent or translucent crystalline or glass) to create the effect. If you cut from the back you get the effect of carving floating. With cameo work, you remove material from around the central figure to give a raised effect. Amber while it is rather soft, has the difficulty of being brittle and prone to fracture if there is undue pressure brought to bear in carving. I have to salute the maker of this gem in having a light touch and a refined sense of composition and detail. Because of the intaglio cutting, the Cthulhu actually seems to be floating in amber. I’ve got to say this is some of the nicest work I have seen in a while.
A couple of links of interest to the gem carver/collector: http://www.dpaglia.com/crystal3.htm and http://www.ancienttouch.com/roman-intaglios-cameos.htm note item 368 has a reverse intaglio image. The only downside to reverse intaglio is that it cannot be readily used as a seal.
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