Flake Necklace

This necklace by Warwick Freeman is made from flakes of argillite that have been strung together on a wire string. The sharp edges of the flakes make it uncomfortable to wear, and because of its impractical nature Freeman only ever made three versions of it. The version owned by Te Papa was exhibited in the 1988 exhibition Bone Stone Shell, along with two other necklaces, one of which was made of pāua (large New Zealand abalone with blue-green inner shell) and the other of bone.

Ancient materials and techniques
Flake Necklace was first created for an exhibition called Pakohe in 1985. Curated by stone carver John Edgar for the Dowse Museum in Lower Hutt, Pakohe was an attempt to get stone carvers and jewellers to use the readily available argillite rather than pounamu (greenstone), which was running out from overuse. Māori commonly used argillite for stone tools, and flakes of argillite are found all over the Nelson region where Freeman grew up. Flake Necklace is created from the residue flakes of stone created by Freeman's own attempts to make stone implements using ancient techniques.

Urban adornment
In the 1980s materials like stone and shell became an important part of contemporary New Zealand jewellery. Flake Necklace reveals the complicated interaction that Freeman had with traditions of Māori and Pacific adornment techniques and materials. The necklace makes subtle references to older techniques of crafting stone, but it is a thoroughly modern piece of jewellery, intended to be worn in an urban setting. Like its companion pieces, Flake Necklace reworks materials with a long tradition in the Pacific into statements of contemporary identity. This type of urban adornment was embraced by a Pākehā audience in the 1980s who wanted to celebrate their connections to the land and the cultures that made New Zealand unique.