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NZ Maori Koru
New Zealand Korus are one of the most popular Maori designs, especially in New Zealand jewellery. The Koru design represents the young fern shoot, unfurling as it grows. The Koru design looks beautiful worn as a pendant or necklace, and it also shows up in ornaments, as seen below.
Maori designs carry a spiritual meaning, and the Koru meaning is one that is easy to remember. Just like the young fern leaf, the Koru design represents new growth, new life, new beginnings. Just as we make a new start, produce a baby, or make a positive change in our lives, the Koru represents these new beginnings.
The Koru design also represents peace and tranquility, as found in New Zealand's native forests. In our beautiful forests we need to preserve new life and maintain the health of the forest.
And so it is in our lives, where we want to maintain peace and tranquility with our friends and family, and sometimes that requires a fresh start.
At the left are examples of New Zealand Korus made from cow bone.
In the old days Maori would craft Korus out of whale bone, albatross bone, and greenstone.
These days, an easy and cost effective source of bone is cow bone, a by-product of the freezing works (abbatoir, slaughterhouse).
There is something very special, even mystical, about a Greenstone Jade Koru Necklace. New Zealand Greenstone (Pounamu) can be a myriad of shades, but the most popular is the mid-green Kawakawa Greenstone which when held up to the light appears almost translucent.
Greenstone is a very hard stone, so it cannot easily carry the intricate carving that you might find in a Bone Koru. But that lack of carving is more than made up by the beautiful colour of greenstone, and how the Koru feels in your hand and against your skin.
Paua Shell is a gorgeous native of New Zealand, a species of abalone. Farmed for its meat, the shell is also used for jewellery, buttons, decorative laminate, and more.
Paua Shell has beautiful, natural shades of blue, green, pink and purple. Mostly used by pre-European Maori to decorate the eyes of carvings, it is now much loved as an adornment.
And as you can see from the photo above, the Paua Shell Koru is particularly beautiful.
