Outside Inspiration: Drawing from Your Environment
Mariana Bankova is a jewelry designers from Weliko Tarnowo whose inspiration comes from some of the most basic forms and sources, including the natural world just outside her door. She lists the material used in the pendant here as a “synthetic ceramic” but it could just as well be stone and certainly could be emulated in polymer. I was drawn to this piece by it’s simplicity and strong centered composition as well as the primitiveness of it. Even with the refined look of the bugle beads, it retains a definite tribal feel, with its rough surface and uneven shape.
Mariana partners with another young jewelry artist, Ilza Hristova. Thier stated commonality in design is in the use of basic, universal symbols like a circle representing perfection, a triangle standing for mystic inspiration, a helix which speaks to the past and the present, or a square form used to reflect the balance of forces as it does in Mariana’s pendant. These mystical, mythical and mathematical symbols have a primitive connection to us because they are so basic and have been a part of most, if not all, cultures since humans started using symbols to communicate.
Mariana and Ilza share both a Flickr photostream and a website to show and sell their work and would be fine places to browse while enjoying a hot beverage on this cold winter day.
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