WEC: Thoughts about Jewelry

Monkeys aren't the most popular animal motif in costume jewelry, but if you look hard enough, you'll find they are represented. Apes, on the other hand are not. Must be the fact that apes don't have tails. In jewelry, the monkey's tail balances the design much like it balances the animal in the wild when it's leaping from tree to tree.  Elzac ceramic pin with lucite tail Unsigned pin with googly eyes Arboreal monkeys live in the trees and they are excellent climbers. Below is a sought-after silver and enamel charm of a monkey climbing a pole followed by a brooch...

A human hand contains 29 bones, 34 muscles, 123 ligaments, 30 arteries and 43 nerves. Taking all those numbers into account, it's no wonder hands have fascinated artists over the centuries. The variations are endless. Everyone has seen Abrecht Durer's "The Praying Hands." It's a pen and ink drawing executed in 1508. Below is a El Mano (The Hand) by Mario Irarrazabal. It was installed in 1982 in Uruguay The Hamsa, also called The Hand of Fatima is a centuries old design motif from the Middle East. The design and meaning of the Hamsa varies a bit from country to country but essentially...