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#002 - CAN WE CONTROL CHAOS


WELCOME TO THE ERTSUL NEWSLETTER

Thank you for supporting ERTSUL’s journey.

The intention behind this newsletter is to enrich your inbox with a nice song, some thought-provoking advice and poems, and to give you some behind the scenes content directly from the ERTSUL workshop, detailing my favourite recent pieces, and some of the process and ideation that went into designing and creating them.

As part of the mailing list you will also receive an exclusive link for early access to ERTSUL’s first drop, DROP #1, which is coming soon.

Enjoy x

FOOD FOR THOUGHT



SONG:
Truth - Star Slinger (click)


GUIDANCE:
Dig the well before you are thirsty


POEM:

There once was a time,
when there was no time,
when the only tik-tok,
was a rock on rock,
scattered by a rabbit,
no alarm, shattering habit,
sunlight dictated all.
And yet somehow now,
we think we are apart,
that our little clock,
somehow helps us,
avoid the shock,
of the earth moving around us,
without any care for the silent number,
in the corner of our phone screen.

FROM THE STUDIO

As the release of DROP #1 approaches, I will explore a few of the unique pieces featured in depth, giving you an insight into their story and details, what they represent to me, and why I like them.

Today, I will be talking about the ring, ENTROPY.



ENTROPY


As a chemistry graduate, I spent a large amount of time calculating and pondering entropy. Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable quantity, that essentially relates to the measure of disorder, or chaos, in a system.

Whilst I spent a lot of time calculating the entropy of small, closed systems, it is interesting to know that the total entropy of the universe is ALWAYS INCREASING. At a microscopic level, this means that the organisation of particles (atoms, electrons, etc.) are always becoming more disorganised, in some way or another. Yet, as with most things, these systems discovered at a microscopic level often translate over to a more macroscopic scale.



ENTROPY IN ACTION


A common example of the observation of entropy at work is the state of your room after you tidy it. After one day, you find a small amount of clutter has built up, after a week, disorganisation has increased further. There are clothes on your chair, cosmetic products out of place, creased sheets and dust particles everywhere.

Whilst you may tidy your room again, restoring visible order, the third law of thermodynamics dictates that in the grand scheme of things, the total chaos of your room and beyond has nevertheless increased. You can imagine this as you clean, you are disturbing millions of settled particles, and whilst your folding of clothes appears as order to you and I, from the universal perspective, you have just introduced layers and layers of complexity to your chest of drawers.



RELINQUISH CONTROL


This idea then, that there is actually nothing we can do to reduce overall chaos, is one I find to be quite alluring and liberating — and is a key theme that I try to preserve and highlight in my pieces.

I allow the laws of entropy to do their magic, as I heat wax, allowing it to melt, drip and flow into semi-random configurations, controlled only by the laws of the universe.  Random configurations of millions of grains of sand are allowed to leave their unrepeatable fingerprint on metal. Whilst gemstones are delicately placed inside moulds, only to be picked up by chaotic, flowing rivers of molten silver and deposited wherever their destiny leads them.



REINTRODUCE ORDER


Then, I come in. I tidy my room so to speak, I file and shape the ring, I create straight lines and edges, I sand and I polish. Removing some visible chaos, all the while knowing that in doing so, I am creating more disorder around me. Quite visibly, in my studio, as my workbench clutters with tools and dust.

Then at the end of the day, I commit a thermodynamic crime (from a macroscopic perspective), and tidy my bench. So now I somehow have a polished and refined ring, and a clean and organised workshop.

Which means, along the way, and all the while during, I have been stirring up a real ruckus of ripples. Waves of chaos have been slowly building and rippling out from this concentrated hubbub of action, and they continue to do so. Spreading far and wide to fulfil the universal quota for ever-increasing-chaos.

I pull the blinds, cut the music and leave the tidy studio. And let the invisible disorder continue to hum and unravel in darkness and silence.



ENTROPY


I feel this ring particularly embodies this notion, hence its name. Though similar processes and aesthetics are present in much of my work.

I particularly enjoy this ring’s polished globular curves, contrasted with hard lines and textured, sand-pocked crevices.

Perfect and vibrant lab-grown gemstones — physical embodiments of structured organisation at both a microscopic and macroscopic level —  contrast with the raw, rough shape of Mother Earth’s natural sapphire — similarly organised at the microscopic level — yet apparently much more chaotic to our naïve human eyes. The chaos and order are bound together and held in harmony by a frozen river of silver.

This ring is a size Q, and will be available only once, as part of DROP #1. All pieces from DROP #1 are completely unique, one-of-one, and will not be recreated.


THANK YOU


If you made it this far.

It is rare that I have an opportunity to talk in such detail about the processes and ideas that go into my pieces.

Jewellery is traditionally such an aesthetic endeavour, which for me often falls slightly shallow and short of something I would want to embellish my appearance with.

For me my jewellery is an art form that embodies some of my harder to word thoughts and ideas. They are something to wear that somehow exhibits my more complex, deeper views and feelings. They represent the jewels and nuances of my being. They proudly exhibit my quirkier and harder to express perspectives, which I choose to celebrate and bring attention to, as some of the most valuable aspects of myself, be that displayed externally or waiting beneath the surface.

And if you relate to them, then it is an honour to share in this celebration of our deeper, harder-to-define-clearly, aspects of ourselves.  

Have a great rest of your week, and the next newsletter might not be so long. Please let me know if you enjoyed it via IG or the survey below, hopefully this can evolve into something that is as much a pleasure to receive as it is for me to put together.

LOVE
Charlie x

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