Under The Protection Charms and Amulets by Bronwyn Lloyd
1. Balance Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing apatite, garnet, tourmaline, fire opal, dried lavender head, pressed oak leaf. Charm design is inspired by a book design by Sonia Delaunay, (1913) NB: all Charms and Amulets can be switched to be worn as brooches instead of pendants on request
2. Hearth & Home Amulet (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint amulet containing sapphire, quartz, aquamarine, garnet, cinnamon, pressed jasmine flower. Design inspired by Louise Henderson’s painting, ‘House in Dieppe’ (1959)
3. Blue Bird Amulet (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint amulet containing smoky quartz, quartz, cinnamon, pressed rosebud, pressed oak leaf. Amulet design inspired by ‘Vase Carrier’ by Sophia Taeuber-Arp, (1928)
4. Ochre Sentinel Amulet (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint amulet containing tourmaline, smoky quartz, pressed oak leaf, cinnamon. Design inspired by a totem figure on a beaded reticule designed by Sophie Taeuber-Arp, (1918)
5. Red Bird Aspirational Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing quartz, smoky quartz, dried red camellia petals, cinnamon. Inspired by a cushion design by Sophie Taeuber-Arp, (1924)
6. Threshold Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing aquamarine, fire opal, smoky quartz, pressed oak leaf, dried red camellia petals. Charm design inspired by a patchwork quilt made by Sonia Delaunay for her infant son (1911).
7. Temporal Charm (2020). Wool needlepoint charm containing tourmaline, apatite, pressed oak leaf, cinnamon. Design inspired by Louise Henderson’s painting, ‘November’ (1987)
$450
8. Fuchsia Doorway Aspirational Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing quartz, apatite, fire opal, pressed rosebud, cinnamon. Design inspired by Louise Henderson’s painting, ‘Untitled (Jerusalem Series)’ 1957.
9. Balance Charm (2020). Wool needlepoint charm containing aquamarine, apatite, sapphire, pressed oak leaf. Design inspired by Louise Henderson’s painting, ‘Untitled (Jerusalem Series)’ 1957
$450
10. Pink Ladder Aspirational Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing tourmaline, apatite, fire opal, pressed oak leaf, cinnamon. Adapted from Gordon Walters’ ‘Drawing No. 21’ (1956)
11. Journeying Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing fire opal, quartz, apatite, pressed jasmine flower, pressed rosebud. Inspired by Paul Klee’s watercolour ‘In the Kairouan – Style, transposed in a moderate way’ (1914)
12. Harmony Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing aquamarine, apatite, smoky quartz, pressed jasmine flower. Detail from a scarf design by Sonia Delaunay (c. 1920s)
13. Red Ladder Aspirational Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing tourmaline, apatite, fire opal, pressed oak leaf, cinnamon. Adapted from a gouache by Gordon Walters ‘Untitled’ (1955)
14. Red Sentinel Amulet (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint amulet containing tourmaline, smoky quartz, pressed oak leaf, cinnamon. Design inspired by a totem figure on a beaded reticule by Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1918)
15. Hearth & Home Amulet (Red Door) (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint amulet containing sapphire, quartz, garnet, dried red camellia petals, cinnamon. Inspired by Louise Henderson’s painting, ‘Roofs of Rome’ (1959)
16. Pathfinder Charm (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing fire opal, sapphire, apatite, pressed oak leaf, dried red camellia petals. Inspired by a book cover design ‘Der Sturm’ (1913) by Sonia Delaunay
17. Threshold Charm (Green Tree) (2020). $450 Wool needlepoint charm containing tourmaline, garnet, fire opal, pressed oak leaf, pressed jasmine flower. Inspired by Paul Klee’s painting, ‘Fire, Full Moon’ (1933).
Under The Protection Charms and Amulets by Bronwyn Lloyd "All things will be granted Under the Protection," charismatic British writer and theologian Charles Williams used to say to the members of his magical fraternity, The Companions of the Co-inherence. It's hard to say exactly what he meant by it, but it is something more than a simple expression of faith. It asserts a kind of instrumentality over the world - a way of fending off evil. When my friend Fran completed a patchwork quilt recently, reminiscent of the textiles of Gunta Stรถlzl and Anni Albers, she showed it to her son. "I thought Bauhaus," she wrote to me, "Finn said Hedge Witch, so now it is both." What I found interesting about Fran's account is that it speaks to an impulse I have felt very strongly this year to infuse a little white magic into my crafting practice. I think it has something to do with the strangeness of this year, 2020, and the devastation it has created in our world. During the first Covid-19 lockdown I began concocting medleys of gemstones and pressed flowers and sealing them inside textile pouches to create protective amulets. The needlepoint designs borrow corners, edges and slices from some of my favourite examples of modernist art and transmute them into power objects. The lollipop trees in Paul Klee's Tunisian landscapes, for instance, become journeying figures; a block figure on a beaded reticule by Sophie Taeuber-Arp becomes a protective sentinel; a slice of Louise Henderson's painting, November (1987) becomes a temporal charm for a time-poor wearer; a section of a quilt made by Sonia Delaunay for her baby son becomes a figure on the threshold of change, and a red and pink ladder added to the design of two abstract gouaches by Gordon Walters from the mid-1950s turns them into aspirational charms.
NB: all Charms and Amulets can be switched to be worn as brooches instead of pendants on request