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.
