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Lady Profile on shell Cameo
By Imposimato
Lady Profile carved on Sardonix Shell, with 18kt gold setting, blue sapphires and little diamonds
code: 5571
VINCENZO IMPOSIMATO
lf you go back through the years, looking for lmposimato’s origins as a carneo carver, you will see a child moving a pencil on a paper to express himself, just like most children. That pencil he used to draw with has turned, by the passing of the years and through the chances of life, into a graver and that paper into a shell. His strong relations with the past come out from his grandfather’s teachings. The memory of his workroom is still alive in his mind: the smell of the pitch, the rhythmical noise of the graver on the shell cameos, sometimes of very small size, used for earrings and rings, his big and rough hands, his kindness and his humility.
That is the artist, this is the tradition.
He has in common with most of the carvers in Torre del Greco the inspiration source, that is made up mainly of images belonging to the Greek mythology, to the works of the great Renaissance artists, Botticelli, Michelangelo and Raffaello.
SARDONIX SHELL
The Sardonix shell origins were mistakenly attributed to the coasts of Madagascar, but actually its natural habitat is the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Its outer surface has white-to-cream shades, while its internal dark brown layer makes the shell very suitable for the realization of cameos. The strong chromatic contrast between the outer and the inner layers of the shell puts in evidence the representation carved, by arising the design from the bottom surface, as a bas-relief. This contrast creates a great light and shadow effect and emphasizes the depth and the forms of the whole representation. Each step of the shell processing, from the size selection to the shaping and engraving, is still carried out with the local traditional methods.
18 Kt GOLD
Pure gold, as present in nature, is a malleable material. So, in order to be used in jewellery, it must be alloyed with other metals. As a consequence, gold can have different colorations: yellow gold requires additional alloys like brass, zinc and silver; in white gold, on the other hand, are used alloys of brass (in reduced amount compared to yellow gold) and palladium.
DIAMOND
From Greek Adamas, unconquerable, the name diamond refers to the hardness of this precious gem. Diamond is the crystalized form of carbon, formed below the Earth’s surface over billions of years; indeed, it needs high pression and temperature to crystallize.
Diamond is always been considered a symbol of love: the roman emperor Maximilian I started this tradition by gifting his beloved Mary of Burgundy with a diamond ring.
BLUE SAPPHIRE
Sapphire is a mineral, a variety of corundum, which occurs in a wide variety of colours, but that normally identifies with the blue coloured gemstone. The blue shade is given by the inner presence of iron and titanium. Sapphire appears in many myths. According to Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole the fire, he bought also a sapphire with him. Persians, on the other hand, believed that a giant sapphire carried the weight of the world and that its reflections coloured the sky.
