Feelings from different cultures – Part 2 –

Until recently, the Olympics were being held in Paris, France.

Along with the athletes’ successes shown on the video, I was watching the beautiful city of Bali with a nostalgic feeling.

About 30 years ago, I had the opportunity to study jewellery in France for three years.

The first six months were spent studying the language in a provincial French town, followed by about two and a half years at a jewellery college in Paris.　This was because my father had ordered me to go to Paris, as I was to take over the jewellery manufacturing company that he had started but had no knowledge of.

My first experience of living abroad was full of daily surprises, as my knowledge of art, let alone jewellery, was very limited.

In this article, I would like to write about some of the most memorable episodes of my time at the vocational school.

Firstly.

At the jewellery college, I was able to choose the subjects that interested me (there was a variety of classes each week: design, three-dimensional, production, stoning, carving, stone identification, etc.). In the ‘design’ classes, the teacher would give us a theme, which we would explore in six to eight lessons. At one point, the theme was ‘repetition’.　Students were first asked to choose a motif, which could be anything. I chose ‘folds of cloth’.　Some classmates chose motifs from nature, flora and fauna. They then research it.

I researched curtains and the way people used to use cloth for their clothes.　Unfortunately, it was a time when there was no internet, so I couldn’t just do a Google search, so I went to the library or to the library section in the museum (as you would expect in Paris, there was no shortage of places to research) and collected materials. My teacher told me that the folds painted by da Vinci were beautiful, so I went to the Louvre. (I was really lucky to be able to do this while living in Paris. After I finished collecting materials, I spent two months looking at them and sketching. I wondered when I would move on to jewellery design, but in the last two sessions, I was made to draw new sketches (which were not jewellery) using a theme of my choice.No jewellery or gemstones were mentioned at all, and the teacher’s final comment was as follows.

“One of the several theories behind the design of beautiful objects, including jewellery, is ‘repetition’. One of the several theories of designing beautiful objects, including jewellery, is ‘repetition’, and a deep understanding of the structure of the motif you have chosen is necessary. Only when you understand the structure can you manipulate and repeat the motif at will.”　

What a basic comment. After that, the classes continued for a year, just learning basic things like ‘simplification’ and ‘gradation’.

Mandarin garnet as the medium stone, encircled by a simple repeating line of diamonds.

Click here please,so you can see the ring same series.

Second.

Sometimes students from other classes came into our class. If students are interested in the subject of the class, they will come in more and more, even students from other classes.　Of course, often students from the same class would take classes from other classes. Sometimes the teacher from the next class would come into our class and talk with us for a while. If the student was interested or learning something, the class members would change.　The content of the class could also be derailed by a student’s question.　There is no length and breadth about it.　

Both teachers and students make their own decisions, decide for themselves and act on their own (or, it could be said, act on their own). There is no need for discovery or following prescribed rules.

This way of thinking, which I encountered in various situations during my stay, seems to be a fundamental idea that runs through the country of France and the French people.

And one last thing.

It was the second year of my studies at the vocational school, in a class called ‘Sketching Jewellery Design’. I was finally able to take a jewellery design class, I was getting used to the French language and I was visiting more and more jewellers and select shops on Place Vendôme.

The theme of the class was pearls. The teacher was a current designer of a famous jewellery brand. In case you are wondering, when she spoke of pearls in French, she always made a firm distinction between cultured pearls and naturally formed pearls (which are almost impossible to find nowadays). This is also typical of the French.

The teacher also demanded speed in sketching. I drew a lot of sketches (some of which I thought were good) and when I brought them to the teacher’s desk, she said, ‘Well, it’s not bad, but….I’ve seen it somewhere before.’ Repeatedly. Déjà vu. ‘Déjà vu’ comment. Anyway, designs that looked like they had been seen somewhere else were not acceptable at all.　

A design squeezed out at the end of the next week’s class said, ‘This design is good!　I haven’t seen it before.’ and he stopped his classmates’ work to show everyone my design.

I can still hear this ‘déjà vu’ comment in my ears, after dozens of times the teacher had ruined it for me. The importance of originality was repeatedly taught to me.

Rings and necklaces with traditional Japanese knot motifs and vermilion Japanese lacquer along the diamond line.

These three episodes were my reminder to understand the basic rules of art and design, to make my own decisions without being bound by other examples, and to take pride in them, and in my commitment to originality.

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which took place in the beautiful city of Paris, reminded me once again of what I was taught at the Paris vocational school.

Hitoshi Okura

OKURADO

▼please click for part1 of this theme 

Feelings from different cultures