Magna Carta – Magna Awesome!

We love a challenge here at artysmarty studios but when the British Library approach us with an idea to make some bespoke pieces for their upcoming Magna Carta exhibition, I have to admit I was a bit stumped at first – how to translate essentially a paper document into a pretty 3D piece that people wear?  The feature image for this post is a picture of the document along with the ring seal that was used. The British Library have THE actual Magna Carta that King John signed in 1215 – yep, 1215 as in 800 years ago – and they’re going to have an exhibition to show them off to the public.  As you can see though, the source material was pretty dry!  Sorry BL!

After the initial mind blank, I started to collect some visual inspiration – I’ve added a few collages here to give you the idea, some are original documents from around 1215 and some are directly from current fashion houses; there is a great one from Dolce & Gabbana (who I am sure would sue me for using their image without permission if I was in any way interesting to them!).

Anyway got the mood board happening and then started getting in touch with the British Library team with ideas, tweaked them a bit, well went back to the drawing board at one stage and then decided on these prototypes;

So we have a reference to King John’s crown (and status), ditto Queen Isabel (the one on the left) and then a homage to the Fleu de Lys (centre) – also a common symbol at the time.  We made a wax seal inspired ring too – for sealing your very own legal documents!  The final pieces have been sent off for photography before the start of the exhibition.  If you’re keen to have a look at the finished product we’ll be putting them up on our facebook page for your perusal once the exhibition has opened.

Magna Carta Exhibiton Details