In 1983 Tone Vigeland commented, ‘The way I got the idea for the feather series was pure luck. A friend from Bergen came to me with a set of black iron nails. I found that when I hammered them flat, they had a lovely character – almost like black feathers. So in this case, first I discovered the material, and then I found a design to suit it.’

The Norwegian jeweller Tone Vigeland was born into a family of artists. Her early jewellery had the minimal lines and bright surfaces characteristic of Scandinavian design of the late 1950s. From this evolved a more complex and highly individual style.

Silver has remained central to her jewellery, but typically left with a dark patination and frequently matched with a base metal such as steel. In this necklace blue-black steel panel pins have been transformed into soft feathery forms that are then attached to an underlying silver mesh. The necklace shows Vigeland’s ability to create harmonious sculptural pieces with extraordinary fluidity and wearability.

Vigeland’s jewellery has often been compared with medieval chain mail or Viking art, she, however, draws her inspiration from the Norwegian landscape.