Aluminum

 History

A bluish silver-white metals that is very light, very malleable, ductile, and resistant to oxidation. Aluminum has a long history, the Ancient Greeks and Romans used aluminium salts as dyeing mordants and as astringents for dressing wounds; alum is still used as a styptic.

Aluminum was fist produced as a metal (in an impure form) in 1825 by Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted, Ørsted. Friedrich Wöhler is generally credited with isolating aluminum (Latin alumen, alum) in 1827 by mixing anhydrous aluminum chloride with potassium and thereby creating a pure metal. [1]

 Aluminium was exceedingly difficult to extract from its various ores, this made pure aluminum valuable metal. The first event of note featuring aluminum chains and other aluminum jewelry was the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace. It took place at Hyde Park in London of 1851. It should come as no surprise that Queen Victoria commissioned aluminum jewelry of her very own after the event.

Aluminum was considered more precious than gold, silver or platinum at the time of the Great Exhibition. This was because aluminum was so difficult to extract from the earth in the 19th century that it was thought to be extremely rare. Nothing could be further from the truth. It turns out that aluminum is the third most abundant element in the earth's crust. Only oxygen and silicon surpass it.

 Aluminum was still considered a desirable precious metal. It quickly caught the attention of the elite jewelers after the Paris World Exhibition of 1855. The aluminum jewelry they created was quickly purchased by rich Parisians eager to flaunt their wealth and status in society. Only extremely wealthy women could afford jewelry made of this new and novel metal considered more precious than gold.

 For a decade or so after the Paris World Exhibition, jewelry pieces made from aluminum were status symbols of extreme wealth. Often these aluminum pieces were caste in elaborate neo-classical and gothic designs. Further embellishments included intricate engraved details that were often accented with plated gold.

 These aluminum pieces were large in size, as was the style for jewelry in the period. Thanks to lightweight aluminum components, aluminum jewelry of the era looked much heavier to wear than it actually was.

 During the 1900s, scientists worked feverishly to use aluminum and its alloys in more and more industrial applications. These included use in construction, airplanes and the soda cans we are all familiar with. Meanwhile, aluminum jewelry was no longer considered precious and rare. It fell out of favor. Prices dropped drastically for any aluminum jewelry that was available. It was now affordable to the middle class, not just the very rich.[2]

original from National museum collection

Photo credit: Greta Lindström / Nationalmuseum

“Eve” is a bracelet that is designed by “Claesson Koivisto Rune”, a Swedish architecture and design company founded in 1995. “Eve” is made out of pressed aluminum profile. An Aluminum profile is an extruded aluminum product with inside radius corners that is intended for all structural applications where greater strength is required. Aluminum beams are used for structural applications where greater strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance are required. Due to the material strength and its light weight, aluminum beams are available in a wider range of configurations than steel beams. Aluminum channel beams provide the ability to run cable and wiring through the beam. Probably the most commonly available, heat treatable aluminum alloy.

 The designers in “Claesson Koivisto Rune”, come from architecture background and they don’t have a classical jewelry training. This gives them a different and unique perspective on building materials. “Claesson Koivisto Rune”, was able to see the beauty in the industrial aluminum profile. “Eve” is made of an aluminum profile that simply has been cut and sliced to show its beauty. Buy doings so the maker is showing the beauty of the construction and reminds us of the industrial engineering of the aluminum profile contains decorative elements. “Eve” is refereeing to the use of industrial materials and ready-mades. (Duchamp, joseph Kossuth)

 re-designed bracelet

RE-DESIGN

“Eve” made me think of reveling of a history of a material, it declares attraction and a celebration to the raw material. Eve has in a way reclaimed aluminum as a jewelry material once again. I started out by using the original shape as the “Eve” bracelet. I took in the edges which gave it a slightly domed shape which took away the industrial feeling and added a softness to the shape.

 Aluminum jewelry was fist exhibited during the Great Exhibition in London 1851, a popular jewelry around that time was botanical jewels. Most of these jewels carry messages derived from the language of flowers, much studied in the 18th and 19th centuries. The meanings would have been immediately understood by both giver and receiver. Botanical patterns have been projected on the surface of the redesigned bracelet, the botanical pattern are derived from flower brooches that was displayed during the 1851 Great Exhibition. [3]

 The piece can be seen as a remix or a mesh up of the original bracelet “Eve” and the 1850 popular flower brooches. The final piece has been 3d-printed in aluminum since a piece like this could not have been produced in any other way.

process picture

3d-model of redesign

Footnotes

[1] An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson [2] http://beadsguru.blogspot.com/2014/11/aluminum-jewelry-hasnt-been-around-very.html
[3] Catalogue of the 1851 great exhibition:  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015016482302&view=1up&seq=10 

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