Sophie Hérolt Petitpas is a french journalist free lance found of design and lifestyle. She is also passionate by astrology and its mythical and symbolic aspects. Curious and sensitive, she loved linking and describing her trend hunting with the eyes of mythology in her blog.

“From his tiny hut deep in the forest, the philosopher saw how cold things grew hot, the hot cool, the wet dry and the parched moist…” This quotation announced the atmosphere of the 2013 Odyssey, a jewellery collection from  Bjorg. A collection, where the alchemy of each forms and materials is transmuted in a subtle mixed of old times and a mysterious future.

The Norwegian films makers duo Matias and Mathias shot the 2013 lookbook. Reflecting on the eternal change and perpetual flux of nature, the 2013 Odyssey collection is a visual scenario of colors and materials merging and melting. Using the dark and precious aesthetic of the Dutch School painting, some scenes evokes some of their most important masters, as a Rembrandt portray, The Astronomer from Vermeer. Mythology inspired most of each stories, a mythology, which speaks about moon, night, melancholia and underworld. We think about Persephone before her rapt by Hades king of Underworld with the hand piece Hollow Moon, then Persephone tasting the pomegranate in the Hades Kingdom with the glasses Pure Gold and a futurist version for moon goddesses with the neck piece Rivers of times, ear-rings Lunar Shore or head piece called Full Moon. Inside these images inspiring by the spirit of a cabinet of curiosity, precious specimens and vibrant opals grow from dark metals, wooden shapes and textures meet luminous substances, liquids and psychedelic colors, all blending and transmuting into new forms and nuances. Encapsulating the playful and surrealistic signature expression, this year’s Odyssey collection also transmutes the seemingly contradictory states of dream and reality.

Bjorg Nordli-Mathisen grew up in the north of Norway and began making jewellery after living in India in 2004. With a background from the arts, she has upheld a nomadic lifestyle, always drifting towards new corners of the world in search of inspiration. Bjørg releases two collections per year. The Classic collection has its foundation in silver, diamonds and precious stones whilst the Odyssey collection represents new directions through its foundation in bronze. All materials are 100 % natural and obtained in accordance to environmental preservation. There is a conceptual approach to all of her designs that encapsulates both previous and present collections as balancing acts between the fine and the raw. Whether the specific inspiration comes from surrealism, Charles Darwin experiments or ancient myths, there is always a link through an industrial approach to conveying nature in a piece of jewellery.

To conclude as a wink, to an iconic come back and a contemporary “mythic” artist, David Bowie who has done this year a great return after 10 years of musical silence, has selected few pieces from this collection for himself, Tilda Swinton, Iselin Steiro, Andrej Pejic and Saskia De Brauw, acting in the video of his new single “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”directed by Floria Sigismondi.

Sophie Hérolt Petitpas

www.bjorgjewellery.com

www.matiasmathias.com

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