Minimalist Gold

The most treasured piece of the South African distant past is the Rhino of Mapungubwe, a small expertly shaped golden rhino found in the North close to Zimbabwe. Mining gold has been and still is the corner stone of the South African economy. Johannesburg was founded in the times of the gold rush and its indigenous name is Egoli, the City of Gold.

To own a piece of African gold besides the Krugerrand is seducing. So, I went looking for some gold jewellery that would not empty my wallet completely. Finally, I found it at the Watershed, The market place of South African handicraft at the V &A Waterfront in Cape Town. There Famke Koene, a young designer who studied in the Netherlands, is interpreting African gold in a minimalistic style. Her pieces are looking cool and they do not consume all too much of the precious metal.             

Aenne Huette from Germany could have been her aunt. She had a similar concept of using gold in  a strictly modern design. There are no precious stones in the simple shield of my necklace. Instead she used green colour paste to highlight the gold. It goes well with the chocolate brown of the turtleneck sweater and the Japanese style wraparound dress by Amanda Laird Cherry.

Swiss 19th century novelist Gottfried Keller described a fairy tale procession where his female main characters were dressed in gold and in silver. The beautiful blonde widow Rosalie was lavishly decked out in gold as Venus, the goddess of love. The maidenly slender dark haired Agnes by contrast wore a silvery dress as the seductively pale moon. I can never decide if I like silver more than golden jewellery. That depends on the mood. Both are responding to the senses quite differently.