The magic of the goddesses now on your skin
A long time ago, when the Moon had not yet learned to fly and used to wander through the forests playing with its rays of light as if they were lamps and where darkness reigned all over the world, young girls dreamed of becoming guardians of the Great Mountain.
From the top of that great Mountain of the World, the eternal Mother blew away the thick fog so as to contemplate from on high, the beauty of her daughters, enveloped in the suggestive tempting blackness. It was a phantasmal, attractive and mysterious world, caressed by feminine silkiness.
The young girls studied and trained in preparation for the day when they would adorn their skin with the jewels and ritual symbols that would turn them into the Great Mother’s warriors. They waited impatiently for hours on end in the “old goldsmith woman’s” hut, were ecstatic as they received the treasures that would make them unique and felt the contact of the stone and metal on their skin like a feverish, sought-after embrace. Then, they would be given the cold sword that they would carry henceforth, with its silvery elastic blade, which would be a seductive mirror and their defiling limb. The terrible cold avenging prolongation of their arms. A beautiful, hair-raising sword with a hilt capable of being a sister to their precious stones and their faithful lover.
When the Moon grew larger, she stopped enjoying fluttering between the trees in the wood and learned to fly high. Up there, in the sky, she felt grandiose, looked down over her shoulder at the woods and, swollen with vanity, she went further and further away from the Great Mountain and even wandered beyond the horizon for some time. One day the Sun took advantage of this absence to walk casually across the sky, flooding every corner on its way with font-family: Trajan; light. The sunlight made the black, mysterious night disappear, and the men, who till then, with their movements and intuition, had lived in the enigmatic darkness crouched among the bushes, were able to move daringly to the foot of the Great Mountain. Soon their ambitions grew and emboldened them to start to dream of conquering the summit.
The young girls decked out in their symbols and shining adornments on their skin, fended off the men with their slashing swords. Their blades became stained with blood and heads rolled down the slopes. But the Sun came out every morning emboldened by the Moon’s lack of concern. The latter coquettishly went off into the distance to see her face reflected in the immense sea, forgetting the world of darkness, the delicate, subtle feminine kingdom of the girls marked by the night.
Every day the Sun brought the flat, repetitive view of reason, chasing away the mysterious shadows and tainting the earth with a monotonous linear reality. The men took these weapons and thrived. Gradually the young girls, their skin shining with gleaming gems and metals, began to fall or disappear, overwhelmed, inundated by the Sun’s crushing light and the men’s attacks. They went off to hide, seeking refuge in their thoughts, incapable of making their labyrinthine world shine.
The Mother Goddess cursed the Sun’s boldness and the moon’s indifference; she cried over her daughters’ defeat and the rains covered the Planet. She opened the mountain and, overcome by fury, she went into the heart of the Earth. Since that day, every now and then, a volcano opens its mouth and spews out her immortal anger.
But the dark girls continue to move in the shadows, they have remained among us hidden in our thoughts and, on nights of confusion, they still turn unreality into something vibrant with their ritual adornments on their silky skin.
PROJECT
Romulo Royo and Luis Royo’s artwork constantly features female images adorned with countless jewels making them very special, highly individual goddesses and heroines. Their worlds become enigmatic thanks to these adornments and their symbols connect us with the mystery.
For some time now, we have been working with the jewelry designer Leyre McGragh and her team of craftsmen to reproduce these adornments in various collections of craft jewelry which transform the images into real jewels, pieces that capture the essence of the pictures and convey us to the artists’ dreamlike worlds.
The work has been hard but pleasing and the production processes involve hammers and fire, forge and red-hot molten reticulated silver, skills that take us back to former times and create designs that bring us closer to our dreams. The essence of the goddesses, nymphs and female warriors permeates these jewels, designed with passion, to make the wearer feel enveloped in our artists’ symbology and personal universe.
ROMULO ROYO COLLECTION: FLOWERS AND THORNS
Based on the picture “Flowers and Thorns”, the pieces of jewelry made by Leyre McGragh for this collection convey all the symbolic essence of the painter’s artwork and are designed to convey the metaphoric structure of its Goddesses.
It is a vibrant, ethnic, tribal collection; with pieces that are not merely adornments for the goddesses who wear them, but rather attributes that symbolize their rituals, customs and traditions.
They are made with precious stones, such as turquoise, coral and volcanic stones; uncut stones with bright colors that stand out like tattoos on the skin, reminding us of the clay that they used to paint their bodies. The number thirteen, so closely linked with the Moon and the Feminine and Silver, the Night Planet’s tears, are an indispensable symbolic part of this collection, inspired by the essence and the soul of Romulo Royo’s female warriors.
Jewels: Leyre McGragh
Photography: Mas Mastral
Models: Tania Castillón and Sibila Benavent
Makeup: Lucía Sanz