The nipple
My soft and beautyful nipples. Thses little nips have hung around for a long time and travelled a long way, through taboos and censours and towards places where they are loved and celebrated.
These soft nipples have been around since 2015. They are individually cast in silicone and attached to a metal backing; these are the first big series of jewellery I've ever made.
It is strange how much commotion a small, human nipple can cause. Banned photos and social media accounts, looks, scoldings, silence... Even in our free, open and liberal Sweden, some things just make people lose their foothold in their every day life. One of these things is how to react to a visible nipple if it happens to grow from a body that passes as female.
They come in various shapes and sizes, they sit on different places on different breasts. Some nipples don't cause a commotion at all; if a male body is over heated it is usually OK to - at least outdoors - cool it down without a top. Other nipples need to be hidden in bras and bikinis, be covered and protected with shame. Some nipples aren't even there.
I grew tired of the norm to cover and feel shame. In Pride parades, I have marched topless in order to write messages of love on the body. Male friends have done the same, yet it is my nipples that become the focus of photographers and people, and it is my photos that are later banned from social media. Really, I want nothing more than to be able to visit a beach without having to hassle with bikini tops, without having to feel ashamed and stared at, without having my breasts more dramatized than those of my male friends.
And so I made a cast of my nipples as a loving protest. The colours are always unique with small variations. I never stick with specific colour schemes, instead I always try different nuances and colours. Right now there are nipples in varying shades of maroon, green, blue, yellow, pink and light white and grey.
Then there are also these radical rascals: the swirly ones or the ones with colours I don't make in a bigger scale such as turqoise, purple, a lonely red one and some lightly skin coloured.
My nipples have travelled through different fairs in Sweden and abroad, they've been shipped to different Swedish cities and have gone as far as Estonia, England and Germany. They feel no shame - only pride, joy and love. If you don't want to show your own nipple, you can show mine instead. Or show them all. They are still sold and if you're interested in buying one you are welcome to contact me.
