Exploring the Art of Jewelry Across the Ages

December 29th, 2009 at 03:59am Under Explorations

VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Susan Sanders at work

At the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia, you can see the work of jewelry designer Susan Sanders. Her many gold and silver designs have a clean and modern look.

One of her silver rings has a bold geometric design with small smooth stones inlayed into the metal.

How did she make this ring? Today we answer this question as we explore the history and methods of jewelry design.

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VOICE ONE:

People from almost all cultures throughout history have been making and wearing jewelry. Jewelry is valued for its visual quality, the richness of its materials and the expert way it is made. Since ancient times people have worn jewelry like rings, bracelets and necklaces to decorate their fingers, wrists and necks.

Ancient peoples who lived near the ocean used the shells of sea creatures to make jewelry. Other ancient peoples used materials like small colored rocks and animal bones and teeth. Jewelry often was made from whatever material was considered rare and costly. It expressed the wealth and social importance of its wearer.

Later cultures learned how to find and work with gold. One of gold’s important qualities is that it is a very soft metal. It can be easily formed or even flattened into extremely thin sheets of metal.

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VOICE TWO:

Some of the oldest and finest known jewelry comes from the burial site of the Sumerian ruler Queen Pu-abi. This Mesopotamian culture existed more than four thousand five hundred years ago. In this area that is now Iraq, archeologists discovered fine examples of gold jewelry. Many of the jewelry designs combined the brightness of gold with the intense blue stone called lapus lazuli. This jewelry shows some of the earliest examples of metalworking methods such as filigree and granulation.

Granulation method used on a ring by Luna Felix

Granulation is a technique in which tiny gold balls are placed in a decorative pattern and joined onto a gold surface. Filigree is made by arranging fine gold or silver wires into patterns or images. Filigree work can either be joined onto a metal surface, or left as “openwork.” Many cultures have left extraordinary examples of this technique. Examples include the jewelry of ancient Greeks and the eighteenth century Qing period in China.

VOICE ONE:

Several other metal working methods were developed in ancient times and still define jewelry design today. They include cloisonne work and casting. Cloisonné involves forming metal borders to make different contained areas on the surface of the piece of jewelry. These spaces are then filled with different pieces of finely carved precious stones or with small bits of glass that are melted together.

The ancient Egyptians were experts of the cloisonne method. For example, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City you can see a beautiful cloisonne necklace made more than four thousand years ago. More than three hundred small stones make up a detailed image of Egyptian symbols such as birds and snake creatures. The symbols tell about the sun god giving long life to the Egyptian ruler of that time, King Senwosret the Second.

For thousands of years, Egyptian jewelry represented a great tradition of artistic skill. Many of the pieces were not only beautiful, but also believed to be magical. Amulet jewelry was believed to protect people or give them special powers. For example, scarabs in the form of the beetle insect were believed to be the symbol of new life. Jewelers in ancient Egypt made many examples of finely carved scarab rings and necklaces that still exist today.

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VOICE TWO:

One very old technique of metal casting is called the lost-wax method. With this method, an artist carves the shape of jewelry he or she wants to make out of wax material. This shape is placed into a piece of clay, which is heated at high temperatures. The clay takes the form of the ring, but the wax inside melts away because of the heat. This is why the method is called “lost-wax”. The original carved wax model is lost, but its form remains in the clay. Hot liquid metal such as gold is placed inside this clay form. As the metal cools and hardens, it takes the form left by the wax.

The rulers of Asante in modern day Ghana wore gold jewelry made with the lost-wax method. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Asante jewelers made beautiful, fine, detailed gold objects. The ruling family and other leaders wore objects as symbols of their importance, wealth, and power.

Granulation, filigree, cloisonne and casting are only a few of the metalworking methods used by jewelers both in the past and today.

VOICE ONE:

Of course, not all jewelry is made by metalworking. Many cultures throughout history used other valuable materials as well. For example, in China, carved jade stone was part of an ancient jewelry tradition. This green stone was beautiful and also thought to have magical powers. In southern Nigeria during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, only the ruling family of Benin had the right to wear jewelry carved of white ivory material. These are only a few examples of the creativity humans have demonstrated with the art of making jewelry. What kinds of jewelry traditions exist where you live?

VOICE TWO:

The methods we have described are still being used by artists today. Modern technology and newer methods have only added to the countless ways that stones, metals and other materials can be formed. Today, jewelry designers combine old and new methods with styles from around the world. Many also use unexpected materials, such as plastics, cotton and wood. The creative possibilities of modern jewelry making are limitless.

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VOICE ONE:

A sterling silver ring by Susan Sanders

The Torpedo Factory Art Center is in the old area of Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Here, on the second floor is a workroom and store called Susan Sanders Design. Let us go back to the modern geometric jewelry we told about earlier.

SUSAN SANDERS: “I’m Susan Sanders. I’m a jewelry designer at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. I started making jewelry when I was in college but my desire to make things started much earlier than that. My father was a graphics designer and brought me home professional supplies. My original plan was to be a furniture designer, but I like things I can hold in my hand.”

VOICE TWO:

Susan Sanders says this ring is not the easiest of her rings to wear. It is more like a finger sculpture. She carved the main sterling silver form of the ring from a piece of hard wax material. With the lost-wax method we told about earlier, she carved the wax model to make the silver form.

Then, she used a milling machine to create a perfect circle opening for a finger. She also used this milling tool to carve out the areas where she placed small pieces of onyx and jasper stone. Once the stones were in place, she ground the surface to a smooth finish.

VOICE ONE:

Susan Sanders’ geometric designs

Like most of her work, this ring is very modern and geometric. Susan Sanders says she is not exactly sure where her ideas come from. Some ideas come from subjects she loves such as modern architecture. But the hardest part is choosing an idea for a piece of jewelry since she does not have the time or resources to make every design she imagines.

Susan Sanders sells most of her work in her store in Alexandria. If you visit the store, you can see her hard at work on new jewelry. She has shown her work in countries such as Italy and South Korea.

Listen as Susan Sanders tells about an exciting show she helped put together in Russia.

SUSAN SANDERS: “I have had quite a number of shows in different countries. The most exciting of which was a show that we had in Moscow in Russia that was called Two Capitals which was jewelry designers from the Washington, D.C., area and artists also from the Moscow area. We put together a show and went over there with it. We had a fabulous time. We were entertained by three of the country’s best opera singers and one of their top pianists, which was absolutely incredible. We had an opportunity to meet some of the other Russian jewelers and visit their studios, so we feel like we have friends over there even though we had to speak through an interpreter.”

VOICE TWO:

Susan Sanders says to be a good jewelry maker you have to enjoy working long and hard on very small details. She says it is not work that goes quickly. Sanders feels lucky to have grown up with the choices she had. Because her father was an artist, he supported her creative goals early on. Many women did not have the same choices. Susan Sanders says she is thankful to be an artist doing work that she loves.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also see pictures of Susan Sanders’ jewelry. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

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Visiting 7 Man-Made Wonders in the US

March 9th, 2009 at 09:23am Under Explorations+ VOA

VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. There are many natural wonders in the United States. Today, we take you to seven man-made wonders in America.

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VOICE ONE:

Against the city’s gleaming spires,
Above the ships that ply the stream,
A bridge of haunting beauty stands –
Fulfillment of an artist’s dream.

That poem is about our first man-made wonder — the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. It extends more than four hundred eighty meters over the East River to connect the areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. A famous bridge builder David B. Steinman wrote the poem. But he did not build the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge

VOICE TWO:

It was the dream of another man, John A. Roebling.  He was a member of the design team and became chief engineer of the building project in eighteen sixty-seven.  Sadly, he became sick and died before work even started. He had an accident when visiting the area where the bridge was to be built.

Building began in eighteen seventy. It was very dangerous. Few records were kept on such events. But, historians say between twenty and thirty men died as a result of the building project. Some died from falling off the bridge or from being struck by equipment.

Others died or were injured from working in the structures called caissons. These lay deep below the surface of the Earth. The workers would get a pressure sickness called the bends.

VOICE ONE:

John Roebling’s son, Washington, was severely disabled by the bends. He had been named chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge project soon after his father died. Washington Roebling continued the work from his home after he was disabled.

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May twenty-fourth, eighteen eighty-three. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is still a beautiful structure. The bridge has tens of thousands of suspension wires that spread many meters across and up and down to towers on each side. From a distance the many wires look like the stringed musical instrument called the harp. The center of the Brooklyn Bridge rises almost forty meters above the East River.  It is one of the most famous and beloved New York City landmarks.

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VOICE TWO:

Another bridge makes our list of the seven man-made wonders. This one is in northern California.

The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the waterway it crosses. The Golden Gate Strait lies between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. The bridge over it links the city of San Francisco with Marin County.

Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge. Building began in nineteen thirty-three. The bridge opened in nineteen thirty-seven. It is almost one thousand three hundred meters long.  It was the longest suspension bridge in the world for almost thirty years. Then, in nineteen sixty-four, the larger Verrazano Narrows bridge opened in New York City.

VOICE ONE:

Joseph Strauss used newly developed protective equipment for the men who worked on the bridge.  These included a special safety net under the bridge. But still, eleven men were killed during construction.

The color of the bridge, International Orange, is very important. It was chosen partly because it is easier to see through the heavy fog that often covers San Francisco. Many people consider the Golden Gate Bridge the most beautiful bridge structure in the world.

VOICE TWO:

Joseph Strauss wrote a poem about his bridge when the work was done. Here is a part of “The Mighty Task is Done”:

At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high;
Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.

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VOICE TWO:

Our next man-made wonder is as famous a landmark in the Midwest United States as the first two are on the East and West Coasts. The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is the tallest freestanding monument in the nation.  The shiny, steel curve rises to almost two hundred meters. Below, the arch is exactly as wide as it is tall.

Gateway Arch

The famous Finnish American building designer, Eero Saarinen, designed the Gateway Arch during a national competition in the late nineteen forties. However, building did not begin until February, nineteen sixty-three. It was completed in October, nineteen sixty-five. Later a transport system was added to permit people to visit an observation area inside the top of the arch.

The Gateway Arch rises above the Mississippi River.  It was named in honor of Saint Louis, which was historically called “The Gateway to the West.”

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VOICE ONE:

There is one place in America that almost everyone agrees is a man-made wonder:  South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore.

Giant faces of four great American presidents are cut into the rock near the top of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. Each face is about eighteen meters high.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was chosen to create the Mount Rushmore memorial. It was completed in nineteen forty-one, after fourteen years

Hoover Dam

.

Each president represents important values in America.  George Washington led the cause for independence. Thomas Jefferson represented the belief in equality. Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and saved the Union. And Theodore Roosevelt was a conservationist and symbol of the progressive spirit of America.

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VOICE TWO:

We go next to one of the largest and most difficult structures ever built in the United States: Hoover Dam. The dam is in the Black Canyon, near Las Vegas, Nevada.  It controls the water of the Colorado River and produces electric power.

Workers began to build Hoover Dam in nineteen thirty-one. They finished in just five years.

More than twenty thousand men worked on the project. It was very dangerous. Ninety-six workers were killed. Many others were injured.

The Hoover Dam is two hundred twenty-one meters tall. It weighs more than six and one half million tons. At the time, it was the largest and tallest dam in the world. And it was one of the largest producers of electric power ever built.

Hoover Dam also created Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in America.

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VOICE ONE:

Another man-made wonder of the United States was built long before the nation was established.  About nine hundred years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan people built villages high in the walls of canyons in Mesa Verde, Colorado. Six hundred cliff dwellings are now part of the Mesa Verde National Park.

Visitors can stand at the top of the mesas and look into the dwellings almost hidden in openings of the rock walls. The Puebloan people cut small steps into the rock. A series of such steps connected buildings containing hundreds of rooms.

The rock walls have protected the buildings from severe weather in the area.

So they remain mostly unchanged in the hundreds of years since they were built.

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VOICE TWO:

Our final man-made wonder is in the northwestern city of Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle was built as the central structure for the nineteen sixty-two World’s Fair.

Edward Carlson designed the one hundred eighty-four meter tall structure. The Space Needle has a wide base on the ground. It is narrow in the middle. On top is a large ring-like structure.

The structure was meant to look like a “flying saucer,” a vehicle that was popular in science fiction space travel stories.  The saucer includes an observation area and eating place. The restaurant slowly turns to provide visitors with a three hundred sixty degree view of Seattle.

The Space Needle was not very costly. The building project cost about four million five hundred thousand dollars. It was designed and completed in about a year and opened on the first day of the World’s Fair.

Today, the Space Needle is the most popular place for visitors to Seattle. And it remains the internationally known symbol of the city.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

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