Christine Mossige presents two different jewelery series for Norway Designs NÅ Vol. 5 IDENTITY. For Mossige, nature is an eternal source of inspiration, and it is nature that has left clear imprints in "Ginko" and "Crystallised" and links the jewelery together. Ginko is a series of jewelery inspired by the Ginko Biloba tree. The leaves of the Ginko tree are a kind of hybrid between needles and leaves, they are thick, solid and ribbed with a distinctive structure. The jewelery reflects elements from the leaves and highlights its own shape and surface structure.
Ginko Biloba is one of Mossige's favorite trees because it is both beautiful and at the same time strong and capable of survival. The tree is considered to be one of the oldest trees on earth, and the earliest fossils are dated to the Permian period for approx. 270 million years ago. In East Asia, the tree is sacred and has been cultivated in temples for a long time. Several Ginko trees survived the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, and not long after the explosion the trees began to grow new leaves. The green, living trees left standing in an otherwise completely destroyed area quickly became a symbol of hope. Today, wild Ginko trees only grow in China, and there are very few left due to extensive tree felling.
Crystallized is a small series of jewelery in which crystal structures are reproduced in gilded silver. At the micro level, metals, like stones, are built up of crystal structures. Mossige is fascinated by the fact that crystal structures are found in so many places in nature, and is attracted to the beauty of the structure itself. She has a strong interest in all types of stones and likes to work with the contrast between the fine, perfect and the rough and basic in both metals and stones.
In his daily work as a goldsmith, Mossige has to deal with many precise constructions and given frameworks for design. When, on the other hand, she is free to work on her own works, she is drawn in a different direction, and is fascinated by finding out what is physically possible to achieve with the same material. In this process, she works a lot with structures and surfaces, and often finds herself at the limit of what the metal can withstand before it changes expression and eventually loses shape.
About Christine Mossige
Christine Mossige is a qualified goldsmith and has a versatile background with, among other things, studies in art and art history in Oslo, and studies in jewelery design at the Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence, Italy. In September 2017, Mossige established her own workshop and gallery in premises that she shares with her sister, artist and ceramist Cecilie Mossige. In the workshop at Holmenkollen, Mossige works on her own projects as an artisan and jewelery designer, combined with other goldsmith work, and makes all jewelery to order.
Buy Ginko or Crystallized.
