New project

A new topic of 'language and audience' which is designed to let us explore our visual language as jewellers. I thought I would share some images of the most intriguing and beautiful jewellery I have seen over the last two years.

Sebastian Buescher

Andrea Wagner

Terhi Tolvanen

All of these jewellers have a very strong visual language. I find them inspiring and will hope to develop this in my own pieces.

Final Pieces

I have just finished my second project of the year at uni, our next project is called 'Language and Audience' and will allow us to develop our visual language as jewellers.

Marta Mattsson

 from 'Rebirth' series

Christel van der Laan

 Fishy brooch 2008,

painted sterling silver, fish vertebrae, honeycomb block.

Dongchun Lee

Inhale Exhale brooch, 2009 

Latex, iron, gauze, thread, paint

Anthi Voyatjes

Death encapsulated

Sterling silver, pearls, animal skull; hollow form construction

These are just some more of the jewellers that I have been researching in my project. They have influenced my overall composition and technique used to create my final pieces for my current uni project; Ritual.

Initial tests

Both made from suede, silicone, pearl thread and animal intestine.

Final Pieces

Model: Hannah-May Chapman

Brooch series, 2011

Suede, silicone, magnets, pearl thread, animal intestine.

Overall I am very happy with my final pieces. I feel the juxtaposition of materials works visually and contextually. I will continue experimenting with these forms in the future.

Historic and contemporary influences

Many if the Inuit tribes used to used dried internal organs like the gut of seals and other large mammals to make these watertight garments.

This parka is made from seal intestines, cloth, thread and grass.

seeing these traditional garments helped me to consider using internal organs as a material, I have dried out some natural sausage casings and started seeing what I could create with them.

Julia Lohmann

lamps made from preserved sheep stomachs

Julia Lohmann uses a material that most people find disgusting to think about or to touch, but surly this is just another by-product of an animal, similar to leather and fur. She uses light to illuminate the dimpled surface of the material.

Sari Liimatta

Sari Liimatta's work shows the symbolism, beliefs and expectations surrounding animals in our society and how they are also connected with our industrial materials.

The way she has adorned these toys with beautiful materials but in a destructive manner shows how we treat animals in our society.

Looking at her work made me want to combine a material that we as a western society see as precious e.g. pearls with the internal organs of an animal which the Yup'ik people would view as a precious material.

First Post

I am currently studying a contemporary jewellery degree at UCA Rochester and our project at the moment is called Ritual.

I have chosen to look into an Inuit ritual that is known as the 'bladder festival' the people of the Yup'ik tribe keep all the bladders of the seals they have caught throughout the year, as they believe that the soul/spirit of the animal retracts into the bladder when being killed. At the start of the ritual the bladders of the seals are dried, filled with air and hung up around an area and over the next 5 days many ceremonies take place around them in celebration. On the 5th day the bladders are taken down and released back into the ocean, so the souls can be reborn as new seals.

This festival shows their belief that no one ever truly dies, but man and animals souls are part of a cycle that will reappear in a different generation.

I have started sourcing many materials and composing initial ideas, I will post photos soon of my work in progress.