Gold

[poliphilo]

And then there's gold.

I don't hate gold. I can see why it's mythical and mysterious and special. Used in conjuction with other materials it can be very beautiful. I love medieval miniatures with their complement of gold leaf, and high status Anglo-Saxon metal work with its combination of gold and garnet but a little goes a long way. By itself its a hard, unnuanced, inhuman substance- shiny with no depth to it- even a little repulsive. There's nothing particularly lovely about a bar of the stuff. Artefacts like Tutankhamen's death mask seem excessive to me. And I loathe Versailles.

As for the propensity of the modern plutocrat to stick it on everything, on taps, toilets, the insides of lifts...words fail me...

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I am not fond of yellow gold but love white gold which I know isn't "pure" but an alloy. It's just that silver is my favourite base for jewelry (which I don't wear much of anyway).
:)

Gold and garnet is a favourite of mine, though...the stones make the yellow gold more beautiful to me. There used to be garnet mines in Spain and I have a few garnet earrings but set in silver.

However, garishness and ostentatiousness such as 45 exhibits by putting gold and gilding all over his surroundings is repulsive.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I prefer to wear silver too.

Same goes for Ailz.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on white gold- my wedding ring is and my favourite stone being amber, it has to be silver or white gold.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Our wedding rings are white gold also but lined with yellow gold. I love silver best.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Gold can be a wonderful accent with its warm glow, but generally I prefer silver - preferably not completely polished. I guess I just like things that tarnish and age; what the Japanese call wabi-sabi.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm very partial to a nice piece of silver too.

Gold is eternal, silver has history.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Gold never tarnishes, and good help is hard to find these days.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If you can afford gold you can probably afford to have someone come in and do your polishing.

[matrixmann]

Gold makes practical sense when being used for its abilities in electrical terms. All other stuff... only as much as humans put as meaning into it.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's unusual for something prized for its rarity and aesthetic qualities should more recently turn out to be valuable for practical reasons too.

[lora-diary.livejournal.com]

I have gold things for wearing, but i dislike using gold for the furniture, for cutlery etc.