Circling the Cosmos
Tytin Jewelry
November 15 - November 21, 2021
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Flynn Fine Art is excited to announce our participation in New York City Jewelry Week with Circling the Cosmos by Chicago-based jewelry designer Tytin Jewelry. Inspired by humanity’s past and future, Tytin Jewelry creates cosmic talismans using traditional jewelry-making techniques alongside cutting-edge technologies. This exhibition runs concurrently with New York City Jewelry Week from November 15 through November 21, 2021.
For this exhibition, Tytin Jewelry has created five new rings across various collections that showcase her skill with gold and diamond. These traditional jewelry-making materials have long been associated with longevity and the Eternal, and are also intrinsic to space exploration. Further, Tytin Jewelry recognizes our bodies as microcosms of the universe, and references ancient cultures that placed our mythic immortality among the stars.
The Sibyl Ring with 1.05ct White Sapphire + White Diamonds is inspired by the ancient Greek prophets, the sibyls. Tradition represented them as women of prodigious old age uttering predictions in ecstatic frenzy, but they were always a figure of the mythical past. Their prophecies came through divine inspiration, originally at Delphi and Pessinos. The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is Heraclitus, in the 5th century BC: “The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.”
For the Iris Ring with 0.80ct Blue Sapphire + White Diamonds Tytin Jewelry looked to the Greek myth of Iris, the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. As the sun unites Earth and heaven, Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of the wind from one end of the world to the other, and into the depths of the sea and the underworld. In Hesiod’s works, Iris had the additional duty of carrying water from the River Styx in a ewer whenever the gods had to take a solemn oath. The water would render unconscious for one year any god or goddess who lied.
Tytin Jewelry’s Cassiopeia Ring with 0.95ct White Sapphire + White Diamonds takes its name from the Greek myth of Cassiopeia. Queen Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, the Nereids. Her boast angered Poseidon, god of the sea, who sent a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage her kingdom. To pacify the monster, Cassiopeia’s daughter, Andromeda, was left tied to a rock by the sea. Cetus was about to devour her when Perseus came to the rescue. The gods were so pleased that all of these characters were elevated to the heavens as stars.
It is interesting to note that ancient cultures were correct that we will find our immortality in the stars. Our bodies decompose and are recycled back into the Earth, which is gradually recycled back into the universe as space dust that will be made into some new celestial body; a never-ending circle, Ouroboros, a ring. Scientists have also recently discovered that our universe is most likely a torus shape, a.k.a., a ring. “I always want my pieces to feel like they have been unearthed by a future civilization.” By wearing these rings and necklaces, Tytin Jewelry seeks to remind each wearer of the perpetuity of our existence via our physical connection to the universe; that we are literally made of stardust and that the meeting point of the past and future is now.
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Tytin Jewelry (Tina Cannon) creates cosmic talismans to honor your ceremonial moments and compassionately connect you to your creative life. Tina graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago then moved to New York to chase her dreams of being in the fashion industry. She started taking jewelry classes at a neighborhood studio as a creative outlet from her busy job. The jewelry-making process connected with her in a way that fashion never did and before she knew it, was headed across the country to study at the Gemological Institute of America. She laid roots in Chicago and worked in all aspects of the jewelry making industry—from customer service to manufacturing to casting to designing in CAD. Eventually, she started a neighborhood studio not unlike the one that first sparked her love of jewelry. Now, Tina spends her days designing unconfined jewelry for remarkable people. When she’s not busy with jewelry, you can find her trying craft cocktails around Chicago, on the mat in a yoga class, or taking walks by the lake with her husband, their daughter, Quinn, and dog, Kirby.
