A silver Mardi Gras Medallion I made recently on commission. It is set with meteorite, enamel and a variety of fascinating symbols, precious to the customer. We worked together over several months to come up with the ideal design. This is the full story of the Genesis of the piece - in the words of the commissioner.
''I wanted Ian to give the piece a look of antiquity or something an archaeologist would find in a dig! He did a wonderful job of accomplishing this. I love history/anthropology/art and felt this look would tie in all three.
The medallion is round (circle) which signifies completeness. Something I think every person is searching for. The top sign is the Pisces my sign, and the bottom one is Aquarius my daughters sign. The Chi Rho is an ancient symbol but very significant to early Christianity. Neptune is my favorite planet and Triton is Neptune's moon.
The numbers signify the distance between Meridian Mississippi (my place of birth) and Cambridge England. My ancestry is such that my mother is Welsh and English, and my father is Scottish and Irish. I wanted to bring my ancestry to the piece, but had to choose one location to do it. For several reasons, Cambridge is special to me so I decided to use it as my point of reference. The distance between Meridian Mississippi and Cambridge England is 4442 miles and it is 47 NE. Give or take a few miles.
On my maternal side I have American Indian. Since the Choctaw Indians are part of the ancient Mississippian group, I felt choosing Meridian Mississippi also tied them into the piece. The old and new world combined.
Three is my favorite number so three pieces of meteorite was added. This is to signify my love of astronomy. Science has proven humans and stars are made of the same material. ''