Memento Mori

Julia deVillle makes some amazing artwork and jewelery. She is originally from Wellington, and now resides in Melbourne. Her work most prominently combines elements of life and death, this collection in particular titled Memento Mori (remember that you are mortal), using techniques of silversmithing, and taxidermy. I love her animals skeleton tattoo, the sparrow broach and the skull and bones box the best.

Here is a statement about her latest collection from,  http://www.klimt02.net

My jewellery is inspired by the Memento Mori jewellery of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries and Victorian Mourning jewellery. I find the acceptance of death in these periods fascinating.

I work predominately in traditional gold and silversmithing, combined with materials that were once living such as jet, a petrified wood historically used in Victorian Mourning jewellery, human hair and taxidermy. I use these materials as a Memento Mori, or reminder of our mortality.

I incorporate the symbols of death through out my work because I think it is important to identify with the concept that we are in fact, mortal creatures. The nature of our culture is to obsess over planning the future, however in doing so, we forget to enjoy the present.

I consider my taxidermy to be a celebration of life, a preservation of something beautiful. I feel strongly about the fair and just treatment of animals and to accentuate this point I use only animals that have died of natural causes.