Greek Jewellery
Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum
| Special commissions are always a challenge to an artist. Special Commissions or Command Performance, as Ilias Lalaounis names it, is the last of the six sections. It includes jewels and objects made for people whose work characterise the contemporary political, religious and liberal arts scene. Using always l8k or 22k gold and few semiprecious stones, the artist searches for ways to translate the abstractions of the commissioner's philosophy in concrete forms. Swords, cape clasps, book covers and abstract athletes figures compose micro sculpture forms filled with the syxnbolism of their new owner. | |
| Fig 3 From the Special Commissions section, "The Sword of the Academician Yannis Xanakis, 1984. |
| The jeweler created works that serve the applied art ofjewelry and that can
also in a two dimensional form befit the modern woman. Insisting in the use of 22k gold, the jewels are separated from the designs one finds in the rest of the great European houses, who stress the use of precious and semi-precious stones ór use new materials to create costume jewelry. In the decades between 1950-90, forty-five collections exhibit over 7000 designs in handmade jewels that reintroduce ancient techniques. Hammering or the weaved chain technique
fascinate the viewer, while micro sculpture revives through unique designs. Contemporary man reads the history of an through the inspiration of different cìvilisations while women are decorated with jewelry that have a story to tell. Director Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum |
| Fig 6 From the section Collections inspired by 12 civilisations., "Set of jewelry in 22k gold inspired by a hornbowl from the Chinook (Northwest coast) in the share of stylised waves", from the Amerindian Collection, 1990. |