Napkin Ring Ivory (Single)- Usiba Lwe Nyoni Collection - Diana Carmichael

This collection celebrates the largest living bird in the world, the Struthio Camellus.

Native to Africa, the Ostrich has inspired cultures and civilizations for over 5000 years. In Ancient Egypt, the Ostrich had great spiritual and religious significance. Ostrich feathers were associated with the deity of truth and justice, the lightness of the feather being a symbol of truth. Ostrich eggs are also often used as decorations in Islamic mosques and represent faith and patience. The Kung bushmen of Africa revered the Ostrich, and imbued it with supernatural powers when they performed ritual dances. Indigenous people of the Kalahari still use Ostrich eggs as water jugs. 

“No degree of craftsmanship is able to pay true homage to the delicacy of form and textures in nature, all we can do is to attempt to extract an essence, a pattern, a shape or a line that, perhaps, has some of the qualities of the original.  In the Ostrich I have found all of these in abundance. I have been inspired to gather some of the elements  that,  to me, is ‘Ostrich’,  into a variety of patterns, shapes, forms and textures, to  create a  functional, three-dimensional , graphic  synergy in metal”.