Oval earrings in sterling silver, adorned with a red enamel flower and patterns in orange and white against a deep-blue background.
The earrings are a piece of Georgian cloisonné enamel jewelry, made by artist Tamar Berianidze.
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When war struck in 2008, Tamar was in 11th grade. Having fled her village, she moved so often that she attended more than ten different schools. She graduated high school in Tserovani IDP (Internally Displaced People) settlement. Drawn to the arts, she then pursued a degree in Tbilisi with focus on ceramics, commuting daily back and forth from the settlement. When the opportunity presented itself, Tamar immediately applied to Ikorta's enamel jewelry-making course.
Tamar's self-expression became connected with her own, and the community's experiences. Her senior thesis explored the sudden dissapearance of houses that occured during the war- and their reappearance somewhere else, in a settlement. Since then, Tamar has taken initiative and participated in projects to commemorate the homes, and people they have lost.
The social enterprise Ikorta was founded in 2012 by the Non Governmental Organisation For Better Future, that operates in the Tserovani IDP Settlement. Because of the Russo-Georgian war in 2008, there are hundreds of internally displaced people in Georgia, most of which are settled in Tserovani.
Ikorta offers professional development and employment opportunities for individuals who reside in the settlement. Using traditional Georgian techniques, the enterprise offers its customers a wide range of handcrafted items.The social enamel jewelry enterprise reinvests the profits from sales into programming for youth and women in the settlement.