Metaphor and Symbolism

The difference between a metaphor and symbolism

Metaphor: A comparison between two seemingly different things. It is an implied personal language of expression and is used as a "device of poetic imagination."It is experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another (Lakoff and Johnson 2003:3,5)

In the book Metaphors we live by Lakoff and Johnson, they talk about metaphors being part of our everyday lives. They say that the concepts that cannot be physically seen can be made more tangible or more understandible in the form of metaphors.

Metaphors can also be described as " the application of a name or descriptive term or phrase to an object or actionto which it is imaginatively but not literally applicable" (tulloch 1993:958 "the readers digest oxford complete word finder")

Metaphorical expression differs from a symbolic interpretation because a metaphor is more a personal interpretation of an idea and a symbolic interpretation of a concept is more conventional or unoriginal and has more of a fixed meaning which the general public should be able to interpret.

Symbolism is a fixed idea or a meaningful association with something else. symbolism is an indirect suggestion to express ones ideas. "A symbol not only represents something else but also hints at a missing "something" an invisible part that is needed to achieve complete wholeness." (O'connell and Airey 2007:6 " Signs and Symbols: what they mean and how we use them")

I have found a wonderful jeweller whose works with symbolism of organic jewellery. Her name is Sharon Church and you can look at her work on http://www.sharonshurch.com/. Her works speak of the cycles of life and the process of change that comes with these cycles. I feel that her work speaks of transience in the cycles of life she uses in her jewellery and her organic forms have connotations of fragility held within them.


So I have been very busy working with the hydrangea flower when it is in full bloom, but now as the season for hydrangeas has past, I am taking a look at the hydrangea flowers that have dried out. I want my work to be symbolic of time passing/ different seasons/ changes in a cycle of life/ cycle of life/fragility of the impermanence of time and I am exploring ways to do this using the hydrangea as a metaphor for this. (it sounds long winded but eventually I will be able to phrase it properly)


here is the progress on the hydrangea piece I started for the end of year:

I still need to decide what finish I will do to the flowers. I do like the white look of the flowers and i am thinking of adding colour to a few of them. There are a few options:

• paint


• gold plating


• plastic


• enamel

Jack cunningham

Jack cunningham is a jeweller who creates narrative pieces of jewellery with personal meaning behind them and he uses objects as metaphors to do so. He uses visual imagery to tell stories and to make statements.

In his series love seeds, he creates brooches that are metaphors for the different seasons in order to convey his theme of the "sentiment of love"

Cunningham, Summer

This series can be seen on his website http://www.jackcunningham.co.uk/jack_phd/f.html

These brooches are similar to my trees that show different seasons.

Sharon Church

Sharon Church is a jeweller who uses organic imagery and her works are rich in meaning. Her works show plant life in its different stages of life and the process of change that comes with these stages in it's cycles.

http://sharonchurchjewelery.net

Sharon Church- Foliate Harness

Silver, leather

This piece of Church's which I have taken out of the Metalsmith of 1999 is a piece which shows the cycles of life in the way in which the leaves grow and form a circle round the neck. It speaks of growth and renewal.

A few memories from my recent travels

Poland: Krakouw

In the mountains

Krakouw is a city in Poland which is full of history.

Above is the old city centre of krakouw and it is one of the biggest medieval square's in Europe.

Above is Auschwitz- A concentration camp.

London: site seeing

The Gold smith's company in St Pauls London

Taking the escilator at the tube station I was reading the adverts and saw an advert for an exhibition called "Mindfull of Silver"

I followed the directions which led to a beautiful old building where the exhibition was held. For this exhibition the goldsmiths had been given a topic of "vessel" and the exhibition showed their design process and how the silversmith got to the final piece. What I found the most fascinating was how each artist was given the same theme but not one of them's work was alike in any visual way.

If you go to this link you can see a few of the silversmith's works from the exhibition: http://http://www.modernsilver.com/mindfulofsilver/mindfulofsilver.htm

There were two silversmith's work that I engaged with : Lucian Taylor and Theresa Nguyen ( my next 2 blog posts will be about their work)

detail in the wings

how beautiful are the wings on this dragonfly's body (in this photo I took whilst waiting for the boys to catch a fish) . I am intrigued at how detailed and delicate the wings on this red dragon fly look. The red is complemented by the green grass

using something (object,nature...) as a metaphor for life

I came upon this site where the writer had used paper as a metaphor for the fragility of life.
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/paper-paper-skin-and-body
look at the 3rd paragraph on the post "paper paper skin and body" where he makes a direct comparison between paper and a human life. It is interesting for me as I am using hydrageas as a metaphor for moments/ memories in life.