Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn
18ct yellow gold (65.26g), handmade to order in Geneva (edition of 25)
Symbols: Scattered Flowers, Star, Fire (Phoenix), Marigold, Saffron (Crocus), Lotus, Swallow, Laurel
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology. Connected to the Greek Eos and Ushas from the Rigveda, Aurora is the evolution of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos, and the Germanic Goddess Ēastre, on whose celebrations the Christian Easter was overlaid.
In Roman mythology, Aurora renews herself each morning, rising from her “saffron bed” to fly in her horse drawn carriage across the sky to announce the arrival of the Sun as the embodiment of the rosy fingered dawn. She has two siblings, a brother (Sol / Helios, the Sun) and a sister (Luna / Selene, the Moon).
As Eos, Aurora is associated with Leo; as the risen Sun symbolizes the middle of the day, the centre of the earth, this is mirrored in Leo’s central position in the Zodiac. With the regal connotations of a Leo, Aurora represents self-confidence, risk taking and a determination to live a passionate life.
The Goddess collection is inspired by the character and mythology of powerful Roman and Grecian legends, and the overlap into other forms of cultural and philosophical representation. Alice was inspired by the way that symbols in fine art would have been instantly recognisable for the narratives they represented, in a way that only experts schooled in art history would likely now recognise. Symbolism is such a powerful force in contemporary jewellery, and as an artist with strong female clients and collaborators, Alice wanted to explore characteristics that would be meaningful and enduring.
After a decade of working in meenakari enamel, an engraved process, Alice collaborated on this collection with Colombian goldsmith Juan Sebastian Galan Bello to create stories in repousse 18 carat yellow gold - from working inwards to working outwards. Juan realised in gold a series of illustrations created with Charlotte Gastaut, a Parisian illustrator working with brands such as Diptique and Hermes, and on the creation of her own fairytale narratives rendered in print and on silk.