Circles of time / A archive of rings
Joana Alves
For the Project curricular unit, students were asked to create a free object on a theme of their own choosing. The theme I proposed was an archive of rings, which have fascinated me since childhood. In this object, which joins two books, the contents range from the origin and history of rings to their symbolism over the decades at a cultural, religious and even mythological level, and the ways they are worn. To create this object I drew inspiration from three jewelers — Betty Cooke, Caroline Broadhead and Suzanne Belperron — because their pieces, although from the last century, remained contemporary; this was the main concept of my book, the idea of the timeless. Although very descriptive and textual, the object keeps an excellent balance of images, and there is also a strong relationship between the book and the hand, since it is the hand that wears the ring, and it appears in almost every image used in the book. To keep the connection with metal, the raw material of the ring, the chapter breaks, the endpapers and the cover are printed in silver. In conclusion, with this lasting and changeable circle of metal, I created an object that could represent it and that could also live on over the years without becoming dated or old-fashioned, remaining timeless.
Imprint / Technical Rider:
Year: 2024
Dimensions: 140 × 300 × 20 mm; book 1: 132 pages; book 2: 96 pages (228 in total)
Materials: Hardcover in black 300 g/m² card (×2), silver-foil printed on both sides; text block on Munken Pure 120 g/m², printed in color with silver-foil details.
Production and finishing: Two books joined at the back cover; text block sewn (French sewing with red thread) in signatures of 12.
Resources and credits: Typefaces: Juana (Latinotype) and Circular (Lineto Type Foundry); texts written and edited by Joana Alves.
Curricular Unit:
Project (1st year)
Supervising Professors:
Eduardo Aires and Cristina Ferreira