Thursday 23 August 2012

A Fresh Start

After a great summer holiday of experiences and acquaintances, its time to move from Rochester and back to Cambridge.

Going back to where I feel most at home and to my lovely house just of Mill Road, a lively place of creativity and culture. I'm also extremely excited because I have a meeting with Jeremy Waller the Director of Primavera for a job placement. This couldn't be a better opportunity for me, as I have long considered Primavera as the best place for contemporary jewellery in Cambridge. With high standards of work from the likes of Vicki Ambery-Smith, Grainne Morton and Wendy Ramshaw.




Vicki Ambery-Smith
'Olomuc Synagogue' 



Grainne Morton
'Tree Brooch' found objects, oxidised silver.


Wendy Ramshaw
'Red Queen' 22, 18ct gold rings with garnets mounted on anodized aluminium stand. 

Primavera promotes British design and has a diverse collection of highly accomplished contemporary craft from all disciplines including ceramics, textiles, glass, wood etc. I can only hope to become a member of their team.



Friday 6 July 2012

New Designers Degree Show

The end of university but the beginning of my personal steps to becoming a professional jeweller.
I was happy to produce 'The Burden' necklace and that it will be displayed as the face of the Contemporary Jewellery course at UCA for the next year.


New Designers was a great experience, talking to the press and public about my work was insightful to see their reactions and hear their thoughts, as well as their recommendations into other artist's work that they thought I would find interesting.

A lot of people commented on our display and how much they liked the diversity of the UCA Rochester stand and the range of materials and colours used in all our works.

Left to right:
Robyn Duplok using porcelain and thread.
Rhiannon Higgins using mixed media
Sophie Monger using mixed media
2012



The display for my pieces was perfect to enable me to talk about my concept and when I told people that both the brooches and necklaces came from the same project they were then intrigued for me to explain further.

'The Burden' necklace 2012 bone china, silver and binding wire.

I started by looking at the perfect body in society but when looking at my own culture I quickly realised how much pressure women are under to conform to a particular appearance.

This inspired me to use bone china for its brilliant white properties to create beads deprived of colour. These beads were slip cast in order to generate copies to look as similar as the first. The beads are then assembled in association. 
The presence of the necklace is felt in its mass and the pressure of its beauty is literally put onto the wearer.



Contemporary Tribal brooches 2012 mixed media

Theses brooches are the antithesis of 'The Burden' necklace they are made to stand alone. They were inspired by extreme body modification which in traditional English culture is far from the norm. The pieces have references that represent stretching, scars and piercings through stitching, wrapping and pin details.

Simply, 'The Burden' necklace is about social pressure and conformity and the brooches are expressions of individuality and freedom.


It was thrilling to talk to the owners of renowned contemporary jewellery galleries such as Marzee and Kath Libbert and great to see the work of other universities students. Now time to follow up a few contacts and start entering some competitions.



Saturday 23 June 2012

The Burden of Beauty

'The Burden' 2012
Bone china, silver, binding wire.
Photography Olga Vonderenko


When starting the major project I was interested in exploring the ‘perfect’ body. I wanted to see its evolution and differences from culture to culture. About a month into the project I became very concerned with the monotony of the western media, depicting idealised versions of beauty, which comes with the perfect body, flawless skin, glossy hair and a vulnerable attitude etc.  
In my view this has become mundane. Are we to aspire to fiction? Should we all loose weight, whiten our teeth; pump our bodies full of silicone and Botox just to look like the airbrushed girl on the magazine cover?




'The Burden' 2012
Bone china, silver, binding wire.
Photography Olga Vonderenko


I was inspired to make a necklace that confronts our desires for conventional beauty.
Taking on the form of a traditional pearl necklace but oversized to hinder the wearers movement, to give a feeling of shackles and chains. An analogy of what women put themselves through to meet the aesthetic demands of their society.


'The Burden' 2012
Bone china, silver, binding wire.
Photography Olga Vonderenko



The beads are high fired, plain bone china. They are cast from a mold to give a repeated circular form. This repetition illustrates conformity, an issue that I wish to address with my work.

Friday 22 June 2012

Finished Brooches

I finished my project with 6 brooches that were inspired by body modification, this stemmed from my research into tribal culture but also delved into the present body modification fashions present in western cultures.


When thinking back on my research, I still found the look of the body modification present in tribal culture alluring. The mutation of the body interests me and I enjoy how it looks. The issue surrounding body modification is choice. If the person chooses to want a stretched lip, nipple, ear lobe etc, which is now popular in most western cultures, a contemporary tribal look can be obtained. This was the main inspiration for my brooch series, as well as the curves and rolls found in women with healthy voluptuous bodies, unlike those often featured in the media.

These are my six final brooches:







The choice of materials for the brooches enabled me to easily sculpt a fragile form that can then become harder skinned. The plastic coating can be altered in thickness with more applications. When used on the porous foam, the first application leaves a pinhole texture on the surface, somewhat like pores on the skin. With a second application the finish is smoother and more resilient. I also used more of the plastic to create lumps on the surface in a few of the pieces, as part of my exploration of research was to examine the flaws that a lot of us share but is airbrushed out in the media. My idea is to make things that are deemed ugly and unattractive like rolls and lumps to be turned into something individual and intriguing.


These are some of the images that influenced my final pieces.


 Necklace by Genne Laasko- Demark


 Images by Jenny Saville 




Various contemporary body modifications.



Thursday 17 May 2012

Material Properties.

In this project I have been testing with materials that can be manipulated to give 3D forms that also have sensual textures, this is important to relate my work to the body. This makes it easier for me to treat the form as a subject rather than an object.





These are just initial experiments with new materials that have been inspired by Richard Serra's famous verb list.



I have also been very inspired after visiting Munich for the annual Schmuck exhibition, I discovered the work of Michelle Kraemer, in a joint exhibition '8together' with seven other contemporary jewellers.




These brooches titled 'Second skin' are made from stockings, latex and gold platted brass.
The flesh coloured latex and textures forms and indeed the title all evoke feelings of the body and the creases make these objects feel like they are hurt or damaged.

Materials like silicone, leather and suede, have the ability to look skin like but also behave like skin does. When stitching or inserting objects these materials the texture it leaves on or under the surface can mimic forms of the body, as well as body modification.


Thursday 3 May 2012

Aesthetics of appearance

This is my last project to be undertaken at uni, major project time.

I have chosen to look cultural beauty in its many variations. Sourcing my inspiration from traditions and its contemporary equivalents. 

Here are some images that have particularly been influencing my recent designs.


















In these images some of the individuals would have experienced some pain for their looks. I am fascinated by these weird and wonderful body modifications. 
Stretching and piercings that were once only a part of tribal identity, now filtering down into the fashions of western culture. 
Cambridge, UK 2012

These images have inspired me to make pieces that are individual themselves and express
contemporary eclectic styles that have evolved from cultural traditions.


Sunday 22 January 2012

Minor project results

I finished all five of my brooches! very happy, although unfortunately someone did break one of them, but these things happen and just like our skin and bones, things break!

Here are some close up images of the final pieces:






The backplates were all individual for each piece but have a similar style.


I had a quick photo-shoot with photographer Harry Davies (http://hlop.tumblr.com/)
and had Joanna Theiakou modeling for me (http://joannatheiakou.weebly.com/)