Art and Design A comprehensive guide for creative artists - Aaltodoc

A pendant of a
necklace
Materials:
Bark-cloth,
thread and
plastic beads
All this and more can easily be acquired from the physical
environment thus helping to turn useful ideas into artworks.
Sources of inspiration necessary for making ornaments
include bones, animal teeth seashells, ivory, horns, leather,
wood or sticks, stone, coloured soils, metal, sisal, reeds,
bamboo, plants and carved stone.
According to Silvester (2009, 3), “... the Surma and Mursi”
in the Omo valley “... share a taste for body painting and
extravagant decorations borrowed from nature ... done
mainly with materials from the plant world,—all kinds of
trophies, including buffalo horns, warthog tusks, monkey
skins and more” are used as principal materials of executing
creative ornamental artworks. They also use “flowers,
vegetables, herbs, shrubs and weeds.”
Certainly, ornamentation is still a predominant practice
for the most wonted people around the world. In Uganda,
“Langi women were tattooed on the back and front while
men were tattooed on the back only and both sexes
normally used oil or ghee as skin lotion ... ” (Otiso 2006, 75)
All these habits of embellishments and adornment aim for
beauty, mutual respect and other society affiliations.
And in several African societies, people do hair art in forms
of body ornamentation and it is executed in relation to the
type of emphasis placed on privileges societies and tribes
avail to a particular person or a group of people in their
distinct tribal communities.
Also, in an incidental manner, ornaments are likened to
jewels that we use as precious metals or objects for adoration.
According to Chandra (1979, 7), “ornamentation ... include
other examples of embellishment such as, necklaces,
rings, bracelets, earrings, wine cups, accessories of worship
used in churches or shrines, body decorations, clothing
ornamentation and dressing for local cultural shows or
entertainment and rituals.” Here we see that, the two words
ornaments and jewellery give the impression that they are
interconnected and indistinguishable. For instance, Mac OS
X software; Dictionary (2009) indicates jewellery as “personal
ornaments—which contain jewels and precious metal.”
It also explains ornaments as “adornment decorations
added to embellish.” In simple terms jewellery deals with
precious metals while ornaments are adornments that may
sometimes be without practical purposes.
To avoid uncertainties, take your creative actions or
processes with one word/meaning that you think is most
significant for a desired interpretation.
Uses of ornaments
A lot of aesthetic and creative purposes have been
mentioned in the previous basic explanations about
ornaments.
Here is another review about uses of ornaments:
• The rich especially among the royals use
ornaments as status symbols.
• Ornaments are used as articles of faith. For
example, crucifixion antiquities, medallions or a
spiritual cross. North (1986, 21) explains, “We know
that many religions have used Gold as part of their
ornaments.” Certainly, such embellishments serve
as enhancements of doctrinal atmospheres for
some religious worshipers.
• Ornaments are equally used by military or private
people as clasps, pins and medals to decorate and
to commemorate their actions and services.
• Both ornaments and jewellery have numerous
significance to wearers (of bling-bling) who perform
on social occasion; playing music, dancing and for
some theatrical roles.
• Also, ornaments and jewellery are used to reveal
marital status of particular people, especially
among the married.
• Ornaments can be bought or owned in exchange
of money and for wealth displays. North (1986,
20) says, “before it functioned as money ... it must
have served other purposes ...” He was referring
to the other ways in which “jewellery” and
“ornamentation” were used before the current
medium of exchange such as coins and banknotes.
Also architecture uses ornamentation as decorations. For
instance, on buildings used for public worships (a church
or a mosque). The walls are sometimes decorated with
ornamental doctrinal designs, which may at times indicate
scripts from a Koran and faith-based geometric designs on
windows and columns.
An example
of a spiritual
medallion
routinely worn
as a pendant
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