Title: Vashti Dreams
Form: neckpiece, enclsoure, unbound book and poem
Materials: Sterling and Fine silver, 14k gold, cuprite, lapis lazuli, gem chrysolcolla, amethyst, garnet, emerald beads, copper, found object (box), amber, linen, paint, varnish, 14k gold leaf, polymer
Techniques: jewelry fabrication techniques (including: patination, soldering metal clay, stonesetting), collage
Dimensions of central Pendant: 3” high x 1-3/4” wide x 1/4” deep
Date: 2015
Photography: Evan J. Soldinger
Retail Price: $4500.00
Poem

Vashti Dreams

Vashti dreams as she walks
Adamantine through
The god-faced stone halls;
Bare foot before bare foot
On the rich red wool;
And in linen veiled
Faces the sand-filled winds.
She has denied her place.
She has refused her shame.
She is outside and apart,
Racing past the tulip fields
And the sea as dark as wine;
Tasting the rising green hill’s air
Of her Scythian wishes
For beautiful horses
And the fierce women
Who will sing a welcome to
Vashti who dreams.

This piece reflects my interest in the Biblical character, Vashti, wife of Xerxes I (Ahasuerus in the Bible). She was commanded to appear naked, but for her crown, before her husband and his friends. She refused, and, although the Bible is unclear as to whether she was banished or executed, I choose to imagine that a woman with the strength of Vashti would have survived, leaving Susa (Shushan) in Persia, for regions where a strong-willed woman would be, not only safe, but encouraged.

The colours of the piece echo the power of Vashti’s temperament, the heat of the deserts she would have to traverse before finding refuge beyond the borders of Persia, and also the colours that might have been available for garments and other textiles (floor coverings, tapestries, saddle bags, etc.) of that region.

During the design and construction of this piece, my intention was to create a neckpiece worthy of a desert queen, a piece which she would secrete in herscant belongings as she escaped from Persia.

The symbols both on the neckpiece and the enclosure are extrapolated from cuneiform writing, using the forms that phonetically reproduce her name.

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