Four days before my departure to India, we are invited to participate in the international competition 55th German Jewelry and Gemstone Prize Idar-Oberstein. The theme “The Power of the Elements” immediately appeals to me and my creativity sparkles. I spend hours on Palm Beach listening to the waves and watching them swell and surge, finally breaking powerfully on the shore with a roaring sound and swirling with the sand. I love this interplay of the elements of water, air, and earth, and it fills me with joy. I take many photos of how the air gets caught in the water and mixes with the earth on land. What power!
I begin to draw my first sketches.
The outer form of my sketches is always the circle. This has probably been the case for me from the beginning. I think it’s because the earth is round. Because round is a sign of infinity. There is no beginning and no end. It is a perfect shape. And round fits the theme – either circle or sphere.
I make many drawings. Some of my ideas are critical – too critical. I call one piece: The air is getting thinner and draw a disc divided into four rings, where flotsam found in the water takes the form of plastic particles and the air is symbolically represented as a ring of smoky quartz that becomes thinner and thinner towards the outside.
I call another piece: Our present from god or Our gift from god.
It is not as sharp. More harmonious and colorful. I represent the element of fire in bright red and yellow enamel colors. The rock crystal, which symbolizes air, is the same thickness in this design.
I draw many sketches, and many thoughts blossom in my mind. Water, earth, fire, air.
Four elements with great power. Mother Earth like a mother and her four children. Sometimes united in play, sometimes quarreling, sometimes allied, sometimes isolated. Sometimes one is stronger, sometimes another.
Water extinguishes fire—air fans the flames—without air, fire dies out—earth extinguishes fire—water can wash away earth—water binds air—air causes water to foam
And another thought occurs to me: the moon is an unnoticed but essential companion to the four elements! Because without the moon, there are no tides, and the whole spectacle is no longer the same!
I draw wild swirls. How air is caught in water. Fire and water spiral into each other. Flames, waves, sawed-out areas representing air,earth in the form of multi-layered rock slabs.
Suddenly, a dragon emerges from my wild swirls. That’s the idea!
A water dragon rising from the turbulent sea with its jagged spine crowned with sapphires to extinguish the fire in the volcano.
Fire-red rubies hang trapped in the bubbling volcano. The volcano is already spraying brilliant sparks into the air and is under great pressure, on the verge of erupting.
The earth offers balance and calm, rising in gentle waves, forming and supporting the volcano. The yellow sapphire heart represents warmth and harmony. Perhaps a sunrise?
