Tania Patterson
Back to Nature
May 2025
"I can't remember when I first came across Beethoven's hearing trumpets. These odd archaic devices - reminiscent of musical instruments - are strangely poignant. I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to make my miniature versions - perhaps just the technical challenge and the pleasure of crafting.
As I hammered flanges and bent tubes and pondered the increasingly mad world: of megaphone diplomacy, communal deafness, they became symbols of dysfunctional communication.
I was irritated, agitated - not just by politics and humans but my normal solace in nature was a battle ground.
Even the smallest creatures harbour expansionist ambitions. Ants had suddenly amassed an army for the unlikely prize of a half-eaten roll of Quick-Eze on the bathroom shelf. The mason bees insisted/ persisted on building clay prisons beneath the dining table and deep in the folds of the curtains. Paper wasps, so many paper wasps!
In the midst of this, I discovered a beautiful haiku by Buson:
"On the one-ton temple bell,
a moon moth, folded into sleep,
sits still."
I love this image: the heavy bell, the utter stillness of the moth. I cannot replicate this in a small jewellery piece, but I make bells to remind myself to be still and present.
I retreat into making moths, losing myself in the meditative repetition of pattern and form. In this, I am calm.
Perhaps I will ring my bell and whisper this poem into your hearing trumpet and you will feel the weight of the bell and the fragility of the moth. And the mason bee will hover, ever ready to fill your trumpet with clay and paralyzed spiders.
Ha! I like that thought.
Nature is tenacious
In the end, everything will return - back to nature."
Tania Patterson
1. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Mason Bees $750
Silver, Copper, Brass, waxed linen cord. 10.7 x 2.6 x 2.6cm
2. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Ants $690
Silver, Copper. 8 x 2.1 x 2.1cm
3. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Borer Beetle $750
Silver, Copper. 10.8 x 2.3 x 1.8cm
4. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Paper Wasp $700
Silver, Brass. 8.2 x 2 x 1.8cm
5. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Wasp $700
Silver, Copper. 9 x 2.7 x 2.7cm
6. Hearing Trumpet Pendant with Borer Beetle $750
Silver, Copper, Brass. 9.7 x 1.8 x 1.9cm
7. Megaphone Pendant with weevil $620
Silver, Copper. 5.5 x 2.2 x 2.2cm
8. Megaphone with Spider $660
Silver, Copper, Brass. 8 x 2.6 x 2.6cm
9. Bell Pendant $530
Silver, Brass. 4.5 x 3.5 x 3.5cm
10. Bell Pendant $470
Silver, Brass. 3.4 x 2.8 x 2.8cm
11. Bell Pendant $350
Silver, Brass. 3.7 x 2.3 x 2.3cm
Peacock Moth Brooches $315 each
Bronze, Enamel Paint. 7.8 x 3.6cm
Cabbage Tree Moth Brooches $270 each
Bronze, Enamel Paint. 5.3 x 1.9cm
Lichen Moth Brooches $270 each
Bronze, Enamel Paint. 3.6 x 2.6 x 1.1cm
Grass Moth Brooches $150 each
Bronze, Enamel Paint. 2.4 x 2.2cm
Puriri Moth Brooch $355
Bronze, Enamel Paint. 8.1 x 4.4cm
|
