Turquoise Indian Jewelry Biography
Source (google.com.pk)
Calvin Begay is an award winning artist, jeweler, designer and master craftsman. He was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1965 and raised in Tohatchi, northwestern New Mexico.
Calvin designed his first piece of jewelry at age 10, learning from his mother an uncle. In more than 20 years as a jewelry designer and craftsman, he has become a master in every aspect of the design and manufacturing process. He has won numerous awards at the Gallup Inter Tribal Ceremonial, including Best of Show in 1989. His jewelry has been featured in Arizona Highways and Southwest Art Magazines.
This gifted artist continually innovates and updates his designs, working in both gold and silver, and adding new motifs and stones to his repertoire.
In his leisure time, Calvin participates in rodeos and rides in the back country in his all terrain vehicles. When he creates jewelry, that wild free spirit finds expression in precious metals and stone.
He has a unique ability to translate traditional Navajo inlay techniques into jewelry that reflects his Native American heritage, yet have elegant and contemporary flair. Calvin's work is prized by clients and collectors, not only in the Southwest, but throughout the United Stated and the world. In the artistry of Calvin Begay, the stunning beauty of the untamed West is reflected in the combination of color and design that create unforgettable pieces of wearable art.
The people of India have expended limitless energy and creativity in the invention of ornaments that celebrate the human body. Adorning the visible, material body, they feel, satisfies a universal longing for the embellishment of its intangible counterpart, namely the human spirit.
Indeed rarely is a traditional Indian ornament simply decorative and devoid of inherent meaning or symbolic value. Symbols found in Indian jewelry act as a metaphorical language communicated from the wearer to the viewer. Such a jewelry is created from an infinite reserve of symbolically significant forms and images, some obvious, some subtle, and some whose meaning is forgotten.
Shringar
Complementary to such thought is the conventional view where the graceful form of a woman is said to epitomize the ideal beauty and mystery inherent in nature. Thus befittingly each and every part of the feminine physique including the head, torso, limbs, and between the appended parts - have consistently been used to support ornaments, often in ingenious ways. The Indian idea being that only things covered with ornaments are beautiful. Poetry must overflow with rhetorical ornaments (alamkara), metaphors, alliterations, and other musical effects. The verb alam-kara, "to adorn, to decorate," means literally "to make enough": for the simple appearance without ornament is "not enough"; it is poor, disgraceful, shocking, except in the case of an ascetic. Hence the stress on adornment of the women, who are but the poetry of nature.
Lady of the Harem
Ornamentation not only serves to please the eyes of the beholder but also fulfils an auspicious purpose. The impulse to adorn stems from a deep rooted sensibility to mark every occasion of life with auspicious symbols, designs and figures to obtain good fortune and protection from evil. Thus a fully bedecked woman evokes in the viewer a deep and ingratiating feeling of tranquil contentment, springing from an intuitive realization that evolving before him is an image of perfect beauty, symbolically conveying the richness and completeness which is but natural to nature.
The Ten Mahavidyas : Shodashi - She Who is Lovely in the Three Worlds
The ancients who translated the abstract nuances of Indian philosophy into images of everyday reality went even further and canonized the adornment of the female form into sixteen different ornaments (solah shringar), covering her entire being from the head to toe. The choice of the number sixteen too is not without significance. It is a significant number among the Hindus, and corresponds to the sixteen phases of the life of the moon, which in turn is connected with a woman's menstrual cycle. This is another pointer to the feminine physiognomy being a microcosm of the rhythms of natural processes. Further a woman of sixteen is considered at the peak of physical perfection in her life. At this stage of her life the aspect of delight is most pronounced. Her nature is to play, seek new experiences, and to charm others to her. Her innocence attracts to her all that is true and good. Indeed it is common for deities to be described as eternally sixteen years old, which is considered the most beautiful and vigorous human age. In fact an important goddess is named after the Sanskrit name for sixteen (Shodashi), and is visualized as having all the above mentioned qualities.
The sixteen ornaments said to make up the standard repertoire of feminine adornment are:
Bindi
The bindi is a small ornamental dot placed at the center of the forehead, between the eyes.
White Tara: The Divine Mother
The word itself is derived from the Sanskrit bindu, meaning dot. Metaphysically speaking, it is the dimensionless point of infinite potential from which has originated all manifested existence. It is further said to signify the mystical third eye, an invisible organ of spiritual perception and second sight, traditionally said to be situated at a point little above the place where the eyebrows meet. It is regarded as the channel of supreme wisdom and sublime intuition, and is said to confer divine knowledge. Here it is relevant to note that the two eyes are often likened to the sun and moon. The third symbolic eye is then said to represent fire. The two eyes are capable of seeing only the past and the present, but the third eye gives a potency to the perceptive powers making them see the future also.
Calvin Begay is an award winning artist, jeweler, designer and master craftsman. He was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1965 and raised in Tohatchi, northwestern New Mexico.
Calvin designed his first piece of jewelry at age 10, learning from his mother an uncle. In more than 20 years as a jewelry designer and craftsman, he has become a master in every aspect of the design and manufacturing process. He has won numerous awards at the Gallup Inter Tribal Ceremonial, including Best of Show in 1989. His jewelry has been featured in Arizona Highways and Southwest Art Magazines.
This gifted artist continually innovates and updates his designs, working in both gold and silver, and adding new motifs and stones to his repertoire.
In his leisure time, Calvin participates in rodeos and rides in the back country in his all terrain vehicles. When he creates jewelry, that wild free spirit finds expression in precious metals and stone.
He has a unique ability to translate traditional Navajo inlay techniques into jewelry that reflects his Native American heritage, yet have elegant and contemporary flair. Calvin's work is prized by clients and collectors, not only in the Southwest, but throughout the United Stated and the world. In the artistry of Calvin Begay, the stunning beauty of the untamed West is reflected in the combination of color and design that create unforgettable pieces of wearable art.
The people of India have expended limitless energy and creativity in the invention of ornaments that celebrate the human body. Adorning the visible, material body, they feel, satisfies a universal longing for the embellishment of its intangible counterpart, namely the human spirit.
Indeed rarely is a traditional Indian ornament simply decorative and devoid of inherent meaning or symbolic value. Symbols found in Indian jewelry act as a metaphorical language communicated from the wearer to the viewer. Such a jewelry is created from an infinite reserve of symbolically significant forms and images, some obvious, some subtle, and some whose meaning is forgotten.
Shringar
Complementary to such thought is the conventional view where the graceful form of a woman is said to epitomize the ideal beauty and mystery inherent in nature. Thus befittingly each and every part of the feminine physique including the head, torso, limbs, and between the appended parts - have consistently been used to support ornaments, often in ingenious ways. The Indian idea being that only things covered with ornaments are beautiful. Poetry must overflow with rhetorical ornaments (alamkara), metaphors, alliterations, and other musical effects. The verb alam-kara, "to adorn, to decorate," means literally "to make enough": for the simple appearance without ornament is "not enough"; it is poor, disgraceful, shocking, except in the case of an ascetic. Hence the stress on adornment of the women, who are but the poetry of nature.
Lady of the Harem
Ornamentation not only serves to please the eyes of the beholder but also fulfils an auspicious purpose. The impulse to adorn stems from a deep rooted sensibility to mark every occasion of life with auspicious symbols, designs and figures to obtain good fortune and protection from evil. Thus a fully bedecked woman evokes in the viewer a deep and ingratiating feeling of tranquil contentment, springing from an intuitive realization that evolving before him is an image of perfect beauty, symbolically conveying the richness and completeness which is but natural to nature.
The Ten Mahavidyas : Shodashi - She Who is Lovely in the Three Worlds
The ancients who translated the abstract nuances of Indian philosophy into images of everyday reality went even further and canonized the adornment of the female form into sixteen different ornaments (solah shringar), covering her entire being from the head to toe. The choice of the number sixteen too is not without significance. It is a significant number among the Hindus, and corresponds to the sixteen phases of the life of the moon, which in turn is connected with a woman's menstrual cycle. This is another pointer to the feminine physiognomy being a microcosm of the rhythms of natural processes. Further a woman of sixteen is considered at the peak of physical perfection in her life. At this stage of her life the aspect of delight is most pronounced. Her nature is to play, seek new experiences, and to charm others to her. Her innocence attracts to her all that is true and good. Indeed it is common for deities to be described as eternally sixteen years old, which is considered the most beautiful and vigorous human age. In fact an important goddess is named after the Sanskrit name for sixteen (Shodashi), and is visualized as having all the above mentioned qualities.
The sixteen ornaments said to make up the standard repertoire of feminine adornment are:
Bindi
The bindi is a small ornamental dot placed at the center of the forehead, between the eyes.
White Tara: The Divine Mother
The word itself is derived from the Sanskrit bindu, meaning dot. Metaphysically speaking, it is the dimensionless point of infinite potential from which has originated all manifested existence. It is further said to signify the mystical third eye, an invisible organ of spiritual perception and second sight, traditionally said to be situated at a point little above the place where the eyebrows meet. It is regarded as the channel of supreme wisdom and sublime intuition, and is said to confer divine knowledge. Here it is relevant to note that the two eyes are often likened to the sun and moon. The third symbolic eye is then said to represent fire. The two eyes are capable of seeing only the past and the present, but the third eye gives a potency to the perceptive powers making them see the future also.
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