More of our selection from our touring Manifest show at The Craft Centre and Design Gallery… Here we have Catherine Hill’s beautiful ring and Kerry Richardson’s clever bracelet/necklace.
Tag: contemporary
Maker of the Month, featuring An Alleweireldt
Returning to our series of ‘Maker of the Month’ posts, here we feature An Alleweireldt. The post is written by fellow DJG member Shelby Fitzpatrick. Shelby visited An in her studio and conducted the interview below.
Shelby An, you have some international exhibitions on the horizon, beginning with COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery in May. The stories behind these are interesting – stories of the work you have made for each of them and stories of the genesis of the events and your participation.
An For the second time I have been chosen by Design Flanders to represent Belgian Design at Collect in the Saatchi Gallery, 8-11th May 2015. Design Flanders is not a gallery as such, but is government-funded and promotes Belgian Design through exhibitions, events and their website.
Last year was such a great experience, as Collect is an event with galleries from all over the world, representing their best makers. You get to see the most amazing applied arts, so come and visit while you get the chance!
In June I have been invited together with three other jewellers to exhibit in Gallery Si in Kobe, Japan. Two of the jewellers, Yoko Izawa and Sarah Lindsay, were fellow students at the RCA.
My partner Nicholas, has lived in Japan for three years – a long time ago – so we decided to make a trip out of it and see the exhibition for ourselves. It’s a great excuse to travel that far! I am learning a few words in Japanese, as I know hardly anyone speaks English. I love being able to communicate, even if it is very minimal….
Shelby How did your new work for these exhibitions develop?
An Design Flanders wanted a point of recognition from last years’ Collect on their stand, as I’m one of the only ‘repeat’ exhibitors. Therefore, I have chosen to elaborate on a theme I started last year, which was finding a balance between square and round. I tend to work a lot with shapes and how I can make them interesting, yet ergonomic. On top of that I like using unusual materials in combination with gold and silver.
I first met Gallery Si at Goldsmiths’ Fair and they were very much interested in my work containing colorful rubber. So there will be a lot of multi-colored work using rubber flooring, again exploring shapes.
2014 square and round ring I
2015 square and round ring I1
2015 square and round pendant in silver and stainless steel
2015 silver and rubber brooches
Silver and rubber necklace
Shelby The first I saw of your work was at Craft Central. I vividly remember your jewellery using wooden popsicle sticks and fragments of vinyl records. How did you decide to work with these materials, and how to combine them with precious metals?
An I love working with different materials, to push their boundaries but also to work with their
limitations and different colours. I often find that it makes the work a lot more interesting and varied, but also there is also the added aspect or the story of the piece, which I love.
So the lollipop stick came along when I realised that most of my family cannot finish an ice cream because they get goose bumps licking the last bit of ice off the wooden stick. Together with that story I found the original long and rounded shape of the popsicle stick very pleasing, and also loved the fact of making something precious out of a disposable material. Some of these lollipop pieces were set with diamonds.
2006 – 2010 Lollipop necklace
2006 – 2010 Lollipop necklace with silver and diamonds
2006 – 2010 Gold ‘Lollipop’ necklace
2006 – 2010 Lollipop brooch with silver and diamonds
Shelby Now those wooden popsicle sticks have metamorphosed into gold and are used in new designs, but still with the repetitive simplicity of the original ideas. Elaborate, please.
An When I made the lollipop pieces, people often thought that the brooches were made in a yellow metal. I guess they were not what people expected, but from a distance they have a similar colour tone as metal. Because gold is the exact opposite of the lollipops, I was curious to see what it would feel and look like in gold. The result was probably my first very expensive piece, which is quite a nice story having the cheapest material as an inspiration.
Shelby Back to the vinyl records – how did you choose which fragments of vinyl records would be
combined with the other materials? Your concepts for the choices tell more stories – and give an extra dimension to the work. Please tell us about these.
An The vinyl record was used because as I grew up records, and their contents were precious. Suddenly everyone started throwing away these invisible memories and replacing them with CDs and later digital music. I loved the idea that something could be made precious again and contain a little bit of data, where only the wearer knew what it was. I usually pick something close to the middle of the record, as the material has an interesting contrast where the grooves start on the PVC.
An Alleweireldt 2008-2010 18ct gold, diamonds and vinyl records
An Alleweireldt 2008-2010 18ct gold, diamonds and vinyl records
Shelby Your training in Belgium in Product Design has given you a certain perspective. How do you see this has evolved and influenced your jewellery?
An Very much so:- I love working with new techniques- I get inspired by materials – My jewellery always has to be comfortable to wear- The way jewellery is made is very important to me- I always look at cost and how I can make things more effective/economic etc. All these elements are incredibly important in the development of an industrial product. The difference to me is that my job is very varied and I do every aspect of the designing, making, photography, promoting and selling myself – which is never the case when you work as a product designer. I like this very much as every stage of this gives me new inspiration.
Shelby With your simple shapes you incorporate brilliant colours – each with a clarity and purpose. How have you chosen such additions as coloured rubber, and what effect does this have on the work?
An To me it gives another dimension to the piece, as people are used to seeing jewellery made out of precious metals with precious stones. I like surprises and being surprised, it’s the same feeling I like to create when people see my work. Nothing is obvious.
Shelby Is it too early to look into the future and reveal the next materials to be explored?
An I think so, as at the moment I very much feel the need to expand further with the materials I have. They haven’t revealed all their secrets to me yet…. I don’t feel finished with them. Usually materials come on my path, I’ve never looked for them. Who knows, maybe my trip to Japan will bring something to me!
Shelby You have particular skills in the technology of cad/cam design. How important a part does this play in your current collection, and how do you see its use in your future?
An It’s very important for me, as it gives me the tools to quickly explore ideas without having to make pieces. I love 3d printing and the exactness/quickness of it all. To me it is more than the future, as it makes pieces much more economic, but it’s not the end all. There are a lot of designers who only use 3d modelling and churn out plastic shapes, which to me always feel a bit soulless. There has to be something else – a surprise perhaps?
An Alleweiredlt: wedding rings, square to round
An Alleweireldt: wedding.dot.rings full circle
Shelby Can you recall elements of your childhood experiences which have led to a career in creating jewellery?
An As long as I can remember I have used my hands and made things. My grandfather repaired
absolutely everything. I’m not sure if being frugal was the reason, though it might have been living and surviving during the war. I remember a broken handle on a pair of scissors. He took the time to make the most beautiful wooden handle to make the scissors complete again. This to me was a great example of handicraft skills combined with an industrial product.
My brother is an engineer and as children we used to make a lot of camps. One was a tree hut complete with roof, windows, ladder, cupboard, table and chairs and containers to hold the candies we might get. I think we were 8 and 10. I did a lot of drawing as most girls do, but also made handbags, clothes, jewellery etc., anything that I could make.
So there is no real surprise I am still enjoying that!
You can see An’s work at Collect from the 8th till the 11th May 2015, and at the Barbican Centre from the 17th May to the 13th June 2015.
Maker of the Month: Sarah Herriot
Our Maker of the Month for May is Sarah Herriot. Here she is interview by fellow group member Emma Farquarson.
You can see both Sarah and Emma’s work in the Handmade in Britain Contemporary Crafts and Design Fair 9th – 11th May, Chelsea Old Town Hall, and in the Made in Clerkenwell open studios 16th – 18th May, as well as at our Designer Jewellers Group stand in the Barbican Centre, every day now until 1st June, 12 midday till 8pm.
Emma: I understand that being a jeweller is a second career for you. Does your first career impact on your work at all?
Sarah: Absolutely! I find computer language very easy to comprehend because of my previous career as a computer software designer. I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life trapped in an office so I decided to start making jewellery at night classes. I started to run a workshop alongside my job. I then started selling work in shops and eventually decided to take the plunge and go full-time. Early on I got on a mentoring project and they funded me to study CAD (computer aided design). This was a godsend to me as it’s allowed me to express myself and articulate my ideas. It gave me a particular style, which is immediately identifiable as mine. I would only use CAD when it is appropriate to the design, and I often hand make work as well. I changed career in my forties and can highly recommend it.
Emma: Can you say a bit more about how you approach your work?
Sarah: When approaching my work, I am usually thinking about deconstructing forms. For example with my egg rings; I started with the egg shape as a template, and then started breaking it up into different patterns and sections. There are quite a few in the series, studded with rods, sliced, twisted etc. Now when I see a pattern I like, I wonder if I can put it against my egg template, or maybe another piece of work I have already designed. I enjoy using repeating geometric patterns and twist motifs.
Emma: A lot of your work is inspired by geometric patterns. How do you translate them into jewellery?
Sarah: I am very inspired by the urban environment, putting my own organic twist on it. I look for ideas everywhere. The escalator range, which started with one egg dividing into two rings, was cut with a pattern I saw on drain guards in the Great Court of the British Museum, so it can really come from anywhere, although I have found it quite difficult to work in the countryside for some reason!
Emma: We were delighted to see that you recently won an award in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Craftsmanship and Design Awards. What inspired you to design your award winning silver ‘splash’ ring?
Sarah: I was doing a design project on an advanced course for sculpting in CAD. I was looking at pictures of waves, and was inspired by the smooth rolling of water and the linear spray created by the sea crashing on the rocks. The finger becomes the natural curl of the wave, and the spray splashes out from between the two fingers – utilising the middle space between two fingers. There is a lot more work for me to do with this idea, using stones, translating it into a necklace, pendant and earrings and more ring styles in the same vein. A jewellery designer’s work is never done!
Emma: How do you think the climate for contemporary jewellery has changed since you started in 2005?
Sarah: I think it has changed considerably. There is a large group of people out there who are really interested in the maker and the process, as well as the piece. I think that customers are seeking out personal involvement to add an intrinsic value to their jewellery purchase, even if it just chatting to the maker, or just knowing that a person has made something by hand, rather than it just coming off a conveyer belt.
Post uploaded by Associate member Henrietta Fernandez
DJG at Made London, The Design and Craft Fair- This coming week!
We are proud to say we are part of this fantastic show, held last year for the first time to great acclaim- a show who’s reputation grows, and promises to only get better. Made London showcases the very best and most original makers, exhibiting the highest quality in contemporary craft and design. It opens it’s doors again this coming week, from Thursday evening…
We will be showing together as a sub- group of twelve members in the beautiful venue that is the Sir John Soanes Church, downstairs in the very atmospheric Crypt.
Our group consists of: An Alleweireldt, Annie Ruthven-Taggart, Catherine Hills, Christina Hirst, Christine Kaltoft, Emma Farquaharson, Shelby Fitzpatrick, Harriet St Leger, Misun Won, Tom Mc Dowell, Ute Sanne, and Sarah Macrae.
Also showing independently of the group elsewhere in the building, are members, Jane Moore, Petra Bishai and Li-Chu Wu, and Associate member Henrietta Fernandez.
241 ticket offers are still available through the Made London website: www.madelondon.org
Vote for Ulli!
DJG member Ulli Kaiser has been selected for the vote to become Surrey Artist of the Year! The New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham offers 11 artists the chance to exhibit and be voted Surrey Artist of the Year. You can vote for Ulli by visiting the gallery or emailing them.
Ulli also participates in the Surrey Artists Open Studios (SAOS) events. These take place in early summer and the run up to Christmas, over 150 Artists open their studios to the public for 3-4 weeks. Painters, Bookbinders, Ceramicists, Woodworkers, Glass, Printing, Photography, Jewellers and many more offer their work. Visit Ulli’s website www.ullikaiser.co.uk where you can see more of her work
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Designer Jewellers Group 