Jewelry Design Based on the Female Characters in Shahnameh Ferdowsi

AbstractBecause of the entry of foreign patterns to the jewelry market, the need to produce artworks with a cultural burden and an emphasis on the identity of Iranian women is felt more than ever. Choosing Shahnameh composed by Ferdowsi can be a good source of inspiration. This study focuses on Rudaba, one of the women of Shahnameh, who has the most descriptions in this book.This study was shaped based on the two main question1)how mythical character of Rudaba can be applied for designing jewelry, and how can storytelling approach be used for designing jewelry. Therefore, This study aimed to design jewelry for contemporary Iranian women based on an Iranian mythical woman (Rudaba) to introduce this archetype.In the storytelling approach, the focus is not on the function of a product but on its message. This study comprised two phases: In the first phase, mythology research was carried out and the story related to the selected character was narrated. To this purpose, first, women in Shahnameh were studied and the priority was given to the most widely described characters. Then, the symbols were selected and the stories were narrated using the classic framework and the second phase included ethnography and evaluation. This phase included identifying common patterns, developing a mood board, defining four stories for consumers and designing based on the stories and mood board, and finally requesting users to evaluate the designs and selecting the top four designs). Evaluating the artworks by users through rating showed that the designed jewelry can be used for introducing mythical patterns to a contemporary woman. The proper use of symbols in the designing and attention to the consumers’ perceptions of the forms is important in evoking the concept of a symbol. Through storytelling, the ancient and mythical Iranian female symbols can be used in developing appropriate and desirable designs for contemporary Iranian women.