Ontwerp voor schakels en sluiting van een halsketting 1911

This delicate design for a necklace clasp was drafted in 1911 by Mathieu Lauweriks. It's got that beautiful art nouveau feel, right? Lauweriks gives us these almost ghostly circles in pale pencil, joined by golden links. Look at the central clasp - it's like two "S" shapes embracing, a kind of yin and yang of adornment. The paper is so thin, you can see the ghost of other lines underneath, like a conversation happening beneath the surface. The gold pops, but it’s really just a suggestion, a wash. Imagine this in real life, though, the weight of the gold, the coolness of the stones against your skin, and how it swings when you dance. Artists like Hilma af Klint were also playing with geometry around this time, wondering about secret knowledge encoded into shapes. It’s all connected, this dance of ideas.