{"id":1266,"date":"2020-08-21T09:32:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2020-08-21T09:32:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:32:30","slug":"elevation-bling-necklaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2020\/08\/21\/elevation-bling-necklaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevation Bling – Necklaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I didn’t have an “elevation chest” of fabric or accessories sitting and waiting to be unsealed when I was given my writ. I honestly thought I was still a good 2-3 years out, so I had time. So over the last 4 months, I have been slowly acquiring all the fabric and other bits to make my vigil and elevation outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be writing more about this process using the Elevation<\/a> and Vigil<\/a> categories, so if you want to see all these posts, you can click on that to see them all together in one spot. Yay metadata!

Ahem – anyway. I am basing my elevation outfit the donor portraits from the Dunhuang\/Mogao Caves. The Chinese Historical Costume Restoration Team – the group behind the amazing recreations that often float around the internet uncredited, recreated an outfit worn by the ladies in Mogao Cave 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Recreation of a Dunhuang donor portrait by The Chinese Historical Costume Restoration Team.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As it is with so much of this research, verifying that this very possibly restored image is from Cave 9 is difficult. It could be that it is from Cave 9\/Grotto 167, and these black and white images don’t have enough contrast to fully confirm it<\/a>. (I also suspect that, if this is the case, the image has been reversed.) Donor portraits in these caves were often in lower border panels of larger illustrations, and not often the subject of interest in comparison to the richly detailed murals of Buddhist art. Some of the caves have been digitized<\/a>, with high resolution images of each wall and corridor, and some with digital walkthroughs. There seem to have been a rash of art exhibits back in 2016, but finding definitive information about this particular painting – likely a copy made from the mural as opposed to actual removed plaster – is difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shen
Donor ladies from Mogao Cave 9, from an art exhibition announcement for Spectrum Miami.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These ladies are shown wearing multiple necklaces, hair combs, u-shaped hair pins, and 9-10 larger, decorative hair pins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I’ve stated before, I’m not a jeweler or a metalworker, so I reached out to friends who are and asked for help in recreating the fancier bits that these ladies are wearing, while I took on the necklaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Late
A closer view at the jewelry and hair accessories from the Chinese Historical Costume Restoration Team’s project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The innermost necklace is most likely rock crystal, or clear quartz, similar to Lady Mi’s necklace<\/a>. The second necklace is most likely jade, which is a well documented material for personal adornment throughout Chinese history<\/a>. The third necklace could be carnelian<\/a> or coral<\/a>, as both highly valued red stones used for adornment during the Tang Dynasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of the beads are round, but the red necklace alternates between round beads and some sort of oblong shape. I interpreted these as teardrops, in part because we see teardrop shaped pendants on Khotanese ladies in Dunhuang Caves<\/a>. After making these, a necklace from the Unified Silla period (Korea)<\/a> in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection was shared on the SCA Korea (Unofficial) Facebook group<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n