One Designer Jewellers Preferred Source of Inspiration
At the time Orkney jewellery designer Ola Gorie created her very first brooches depicting Orkney\’s heritage the products were considered unusual jewellery as she was actually a founder among jewellery designers. Her very first piece of unusual jewellery, the Maeshowe Dragon, highlighted graffiti carved by Viking tomb raiders.
This brooch is recognised as iconic and has been popular for a lot more than half a century, so is no longer unusual jewellery, more like a \’must have\’ classic now. And a host of additional jewellery designers have implemented Ola\’s lead and flipped to heritage for concepts.
The Maeshowe Dragon was hand carved by a young Viking on his way home from the Crusades about a thousand years ago. It was uncovered inside Maeshowe Neolithic tomb which is 5,000 years old. The dragon sits alongside the best collection of Norse runic carvings outside Scandinavia.
Orkney has other examples of graffiti dating from the 18th to the 21st centuries. An archaeologist in Orkney, Antonia Thomas, is already studying rock art as an element of her PhD researching \’Inscription as Social Practice: Orkney\’s Rock-Art and Graffiti\’. She has recently been taking a look at 19th century graffiti inside Neolithic Unstan tomb close to Stromness in Orkney. Monuments bear symbols with names and dates coming from visitors, however these are not likely to inspire unusual jewellery creations from jewellery designers. She\’s found that 120 years back there had been a sizeable craze in heritage tourism with visitors traveling long distances to view Orkney\’s wonderful geology and archaeology.
The Unstan Tomb was opened up in 1884 when there was clearly a vast quantity of antiquarian activity around the world. People sought out fossils and prehistoric artefacts which led to the tourism growth on the islands.
Among the names engraved in the stones are illustrations from Edinburgh and even Keighley in Yorkshire. Sam W Wells left his mark in 1890 and Antonia is trying to understand more about this early visitor. She has found a few hints through simple census and trade directory searches. He was actually a brass and iron foundry entrepreneur in the town of Keighley. She wonders why he journeyed to Orkney – for business, pleasure or to see friends?
In these days, naturally, any person defacing ancient monuments with their own name would be prosecuted. It would be seen as an act of criminal damage. Four years ago a holiday-maker scrawled a message on a bed in an historic stone house in Skara Brae, announcing XXX slept here, and the date. Police matched the name to the owner of a vehicle who had been visiting and caught up with him while he boarded the boat going back to the mainland. His marks weren\’t left on the Neolithic monument for archaeologists of the future to come across – he was made to get rid of them personally!
Nonetheless the older markings are crucial indicators that show us about the people who traveled to the monuments and also raise fascinating questions about social history, say the archaeologists. And the Viking graffiti and the dragon representation are now a part of the appeal of going to the Maeshowe chambered cairn, which was excavated in 1861.
Unusual Jewellery Originated From Viking Artwork
The particular 30 inscriptions located in Maeshowe cairn, make it one of the major, and most renowned, collections of runes known in Europe. The Orkneyinga Saga says that over 800 years back a group of Viking warriors had needed shelter from a awful snowstorm. While they were waiting inside of the stone chamber for the storm to clear they chiseled graffiti into the stone walls. A large number of elementary designs can be found in finer form in Viking jewellery pieces.
A great deal of the writing is boastful. It contains personal references to skilful rune carving with many names and as well to the beauty of a woman known as Ingibiorg. Ola Gorie in addition has designed a jewellery range which bears this Viking lady\’s identity. A different Norse group of warriors later on also left their marks over the walls. However if the Vikings had been hunting for treasure, they would definitely have been unhappy.
Having said that, the legacies of these inscriptions are treasures in on their own now. Guides to the tomb show off the wonderful runes by torchlight. And jewellery designers Ola Gorie have created two ranges of unusual jewellery influenced by the Norse warriors\’ etchings. These old Vikings have definitely left their mark.