suspend.ed is evolving....

Hello!

Exciting things are underway... and a new suspend.ed is on its way- Suspend.ed in pink

Artist Call Out:

You are invited to participate in ‘Suspend.ed in pink’, a touring exhibition that seeks to explore the world of jewellery as it is NOW.  With a focus on concept driven jewellery, also known as art or research jewellery, this call out is looking for wearable pieces that contain the colour PINK.

Submission Deadline:


Submissions for initial selection must be received by SEPT. 21, 2012, electronically to suspendedinpink@gmail.com

Exhibition dates/Information:

The Atrium Gallery, The School of Jewellery, Birmingham University. England. 7^th-28^th January 2013.

Studio Gabi Green, Munich, Germany. As part of Schmuck 2013 from 7^th - 11^th March 2013.

Further venues to be confirmed, exhibitors will be notified as these are secured.

Jury:

Timothy Information Limited.

Laura Potter

Curator:

Laura Bradshaw-Heap

All inquiries and contact:

http://suspendedinpink.blogspot.co.uk/

suspendedinpink@gmail.com

a crowded private view....

still hanging by a thread...

hanging

We are open!

The exhibition is now open- and we look forward to seeing you there!

Rhona McCallum

I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art’s Jewellery and Silversmithing department in 2011, and since then have undertaken a residency at the Glasgow School of Art. The work selected for this exhibition comes from my degree show collection.

I am fascinated by natural landscapes, in particular that of the west coast of Scotland. Lines and surfaces from geological forms and coastal plant life from this weather-beaten region have inspired my current collection. By transforming these details into linear compositions, I create intricate structures. Layering and repetition of straight lines allows three-dimensional structures and clusters to develop; the movement achieved highlights the wild and ever-changing environment of these coastlines.

I develop my designs through mixed-media drawing and photography, alongside material development in the workshop. I interpret textures, both natural and drawn, through processes such as reticulating the surface of the metal, and use heat to colour and tarnish brass wire. The controlled and restricted forms offer a contrast to the unpredictable nature of the surface techniques used.

Laura Bradshaw-Heap

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind… If you change your mind, you can change your life.

- William James.

  

My process.

My practice seeks to create a social experience within marginal community groups with little or no experience of the creative arts. For me, the end product is not the jewellery produced by the group. Rather the producing of jewellery is a means for developing a social experience within the group. It is these social experiences, of which I become a part of, which then inform my work.

This is me; a project.

The ‘this is me’ project was developed through a series of informal jewellery workshops with a group of women from the Irish Traveller community based in London, in co-ordination with Brent Irish Advisory Services (B.I.A.S.).

The aim of the women who took part was to show an alternative side to Irish Traveller life; one very different to that shown in the Channel 4 series “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”. B.I.A.S.’s aim was to create a coffee morning which would give the women a place to meet outside their site once a week, to offer new experiences and to develop self-confidence.

My aim as an artist was to create a shared dialogue with the women through the creation of jewellery; to gain a small insight Irish Traveller culture and to develop a collection of jewellery pieces which reflected the themes that emerged through our informal conversations.

My resulting jewellery pieces look to embody these themes. They are informed by the womens’ sense of colour and fun; the objects created during the workshops, and the processes used to create them.

 Without these women, these pieces would not exist.





Alice Bo-Wen Chang

Previously trained as an architect, I have always envisioned buildings as machines. Architec­tural elements are designed to form spaces that manipulate activities and movement. While jewellery cannot divorce itself from the human body, the most intimate space lies in between the body and the object(s). I approach jewellery design as constructing spaces on the topographic contours.

Experimenting with different metals, plastics, enamel, and combining innovative technology with traditional hand craft skills, I am always in search of new materials and new ways of working. My exploration entitled ‘Bodyspace/bodyscape’ starts from a flat surface as it does not possess a spatial relationship, lines can be cut and pulled apart to create an animated form that express the expanded space.

The uncompromising lines and squares in Bodyspace/bodyscape, repeat in a predictable manner and are folded into endless possibilities of forms and shapes. The rigorous and logical orders result in an unpredictable, even organic growth of variations that contrast and interact with the curvature of the body. The objects perform the transformation that is frozen in time. The manipulation of lines disintegrates the rigor of squares and straight angles, the structure folds, collapses, reconstructs and extends its motion into space. When the action comes to a halt, the movement continues visually.

The study results in a series of undulating solid squares resembling the body landscape. Each of them is a fragment of the body mosaic, and the wiry structure is situated on the tilted fields, grows out of the folded planes, or sometimes converses and dialogues with the unaligned surfaces. The objects can be made small, or large, depending on the number of units; the modular nature of the patterned units allow pieces to oscillate in scale effortlessly. The action in which the movement occurs is presumptuous and temporal, but the effect is long lasting. The colors and textures not only provided a different ambiance, they show the versatility and adaptability. In one of the earrings, the oxidized silver provides a darker background to support and contrast the white structure, of which some of the lines and corners are highlighted with fluorescent pink color. The piece instantly possesses an animated quality, and a very dynamic and hierarchical transition from the body surface to the tip of the angle reaching out to infinity.

Jo Pond

Jo Pond graduated with an MA distinction in Jewellery Silversmithing & Related Products, from The School of Jewellery, Birmingham in 2005. This period of study formed a major turning point. Having been making jewellery since the age of 15, trained firstly at evening classes and latterly at Berkshire and Loughborough Colleges of Art & Design, Jo established her design process and achieved a completely new and original body of work which now focuses her practice.

Jo was awarded for her Narrative Jewellery Collection, winning the 2005 BDI Industry & Genius Awards in the category of Products and Genius. Her work has been exhibited internationally, showcased at selected exhibitions such as Schmuck in Munich, the V&A Museum, London, Price Tower Arts Center, Oklahoma, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam and Contemporary Applied Arts, London.

Born in Chiswick, London, Jo is now based in rural Staffordshire, living in a beautiful building which was formerly a convent. Alongside her practice as a studio jeweller, Jo is now employed as a full-time lecturer at The School of Jewellery. She is a member of Contemporary Applied Arts gallery and the Association for Contemporary Jewellery.

“I come from a family of ‘Ponds’ who appear to have a genetic necessity for hoarding; digging stuff up was the foundation of a passion for objects which others might not quite appreciate. Metal detector finds and loose road-side cats-eyes fashioned the beginnings of a lifetime of habitual collecting.

As a Technician I resourcefully trimmed worn ends off workshop brushes to create much shorter ‘new’ brushes. The off-cuts sat in boxes and were gradually joined by other worn and discarded brushes. To me these were beautiful, bristles or no bristles.

Utilising this drive to collect the unconventional and unwanted, coupled with an aesthetic appreciation of the details of decomposition and change, I choose to incorporate items potentially paradoxical within jewellery, to create beautiful and on occasion, confusing objects.

Employing symbolic references of form, material and technique, I dabble in the potential for wearable items to become vehicles for communication; whether through sense, nostalgia, or knowledge.”

Karin Roy Andersson

http://www.karin-roy.se/”The joy of repetition really is on me”

- Hot Chip

I am a long distance runner. The urge for repeating movements over and over again, methodically and resolutely is something that is significant for both my personality and my work. Running kilometre after kilometre or sawing up and down hour after hour. Multiplicity and recurrence attract me. The variations between the details become important creating patterns and rhythms. I am aiming to make jewellery where dynamic patterns form harmony and balance.

I am a collector always searching, always hunting. Constantly consuming, chewing, grinding. Once I have got caught in a loop of repetitions, a routine I find it very hard to stop. Misuse, mantra or mania - I identify with the repeated persistent movement and the constant grinding.

My works are self-portraits made of my latest addiction, or more correctly what remains after consuming kilograms and kilograms of it. They are traces of an unnecessary consumption; to collect and use them eases my conscience.

Joana Cunha

I am a Portuguese designer maker based in London. In my work I use mainly traditional jewellery skills, but I am also interested in the combination of traditional skills with new technologies. My current work consists on hand made pieces which have been designed to trigger interaction between the wearer and the viewer. The main focus is on hidden spaces and movement.

 All the pieces have hidden elements which are the vehicle to incite the curiosity of the viewer and initiate a conversation with the wearer. Each piece hides something unexpected. Movements and touch reveal a word, a sound, an emoticon or a stone. The attention of the viewer is captured by colour and tactile contrasts.

The revelation of the hidden elements is the surprise that connects the viewer to the wearer, encouraging an interaction that may not have happened otherwise.

Rebecca Skeels

SKEELS is a growing jewellery and product design company. It was established in Cambridge in 1994 by Rebecca Skeels. Rebecca is now based in Farnham, Surrey after completing a residency and solo show at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Berkshire.

Over the past 17 years, Rebecca has worked on commissions as well as her own collections of unique hand made cufflinks and pendants to inspirational furniture and games. These are exhibited through, galleries, shops, craft shows and trade exhibitions.

In 2009 Rebecca became senior tutor for the undergraduate Three Dimensional Design and Product Design courses and is the Jewellery and Metalwork Pathway Leader at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham. Rebecca has more recently become cluster leader on the MA course at the University for the Creative Arts, working with students across Interior and Architecture, Jewellery, Glass and Ceramics specialist areas.

As a member of the Board of Directors for the Association for Contemporary Jewellery (ACJ), Rebecca encourages jewellers to network online. The Association for Contemporary Jewellery is devoted to the promotion, representation, understanding and development of contemporary jewellery.

Very recently, Rebecca became a Trustee for the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. The New Ashgate Gallery is a non-profit educational charity, which promotes contemporary visual arts and crafts to as wide a public as possible.

Through research and experimentation with alternative materials, Rebecca produces a number of one-off pieces to complement her existing ranges. This led to managing and running a symposium/exchange with the Jewellers and Silversmiths Network (JSN) and the Critique Collective Network in San Francisco in 2010. The JSN is a group run by its members for its members with the aim of getting to know other makers. 

Rebecca’s recent collection of bird inspired rings and pins are made from a mixture of metals, from metal clay, brass, steel and silver using a variety of processes including casting, hand building, soldering, texturing and oxidizing. The legs of the ducks, chickens and crows become individual display stands of the jewellery when not worn.

Rebecca intends to expand her recent collections with more research and experimentation, taking opportunity of new, developing and different materials and technologies. Research will also take place to develop the method in which jewellery and metalwork is taught, widening the understanding of how we learn and the knowledge of the jewellery and metalwork industry.

Michelle Kraemer

http://www.michellekraemer.com/

 When I graduated from school in Luxembourg I knew that I needed to go abroad to study. Spontaneous decisions have been a big part of my life so far. That’s how I decided that I didn’t want to study film making after all, but wanted to work more with my hands. So I started a course in Three-Dimensional Design in at the University of Portsmouth during which I discovered my love for jewellery. When graduated I had done a little bit of everything, but not much of anything, I needed to deepen my understanding in the field of contemporary jewellery. When I found a little school in Florence, Italy, by the name of Alchimia I knew that’s where I needed to go. So I moved to Italy. During the 3 years I spent in Florence I discovered that also with jewellery spontaneity is a valuable tool. 

After I finished the 3 year course I again moved, to Vienna, Austria, this time, where I’m still working and living now. I had found the studio and artist community STOSSIMHIMMEL, that has proven to be a great support for me and my work. During the first year in Vienna I decided that I also wanted to do the fourth year of Alchimia, called Quaternitas. I chose Ruudt Peters as my tutor and he showed me that I needed to leave my comfort zone in order to make good pieces, hence the title “ Have you got the guts?” The pieces shown in this exhibition are a part of the outcome of that year.

Anatomy…Shapes…Materials…Transformations…

Jewellery is something that needs to be touched. And this is how it all starts, intuitively manipulating materials…leather… textiles… wood…stone…latex… Sometimes I let them decide themselves what they want to be and sometimes a specific idea calls for a specific material. The challenge, for me, is to transform the material in such a way that it changes completely, it becomes something else entirely, until it becomes jewellery...

Skin – the barrier between our self and the world. Worn outside of this barrier, these pieces become like an extension to our self. Like adding a protective layer to our self or slipping into someone else’s skin, mimic of reality or the chance to be someone else. Or like the phrase “being thin skinned”, meaning being sensitive and in need of a thicker skin, or protective layer. Being inspired by the body itself, they create a sense of confusion in us. Fascination and disgust, they are in a way a part of us, but at the same time they are like a disfigurement that we catch ourselves staring at. Or like a repressed feeling that materializes in form of a growth or a tumour, for us to carry with us.

Margherita de Martino Norante

Margherita is from Florence and really loves to live in her home town. She took her degree in Idustrial Design and then studied Jewerly at Alchimia and hand engraving at Le Arti Orafe. As teachers she’s had Manfred Bishoff, Manuel Vilhena and for short workshops Bernhard Schobinger and Arline Fish.

In 2010, together with her friend Eugenia Ingegno, she has started 1x1 collective, a project with the aim of spreading and showcasing contemporary jewelry in an simple and direct way. She has organized some exhibitions for the collective and took part in others like: Alchemic Experiences (Lorber Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel), Conceptual Jewelry exhibition (Gallery Putti, Riga, Latvia), Premio Fondazione Cominelli (Cominelli Foundation, Cisano di San Felice, Brescia, Italy), JOYA Fair (contemporary jewellery week Barcelona with 1x1), and she has been selected for Schmuck 2012 (Munich, Germany). Her work is also present in some private and public collections.

About her work:

I like making single standing pieces of jewellery. They are all different but have a common starting point: the idea that jewellery talks about the wearer.

A piece of jewelry is a powerful instrument of communication. It is worn on the body or on top of clothing so it's directly between our self and the world. Not only is the first thing to be seen, but more than clothes, it is superfluous and one makes a conscientious decision to wear it.

So I make puppets, reproduce undergarments, play with fetish and icons coming from my culture, education and everyday things.

My pieces are my way of ironically reflecting on human frailty and on those contrasting wishes of revealing, hiding and disguising oneself that each of us recognises.

Luz Arias

Jewelry has always been my dream
I have always wanted to be jeweler
it is paradise and strugle
it is a mirror
where I can see
things I been trying to hide
It is a playground and a nightmare
a fight and my place in the world
jewelry can stretch a bit and be a spoon
or a crown
even I like  metal the most
it is tough  has its own rules
hard but melt opaque and
bright...
love hammering, the  profound loneliness of the dark gold
and  the clear sound of the metals.
curiosity brought me and drove me to
places of resin and wood
colors and freshness
love...
limits that open
to a meaning full
path walk
it's the place to be lost
and stay there until
some ring come and
pick me
being suspended
is also the in between
one thing is not yet there
and the other is not gone...
suspended
waiting... for the thing to happen

Laura McGrath

The objects and jewellery that I make are abstracts of the things I think about and research within my practice.  They are the staring points for broader exploration and are usually the precursor to other activities such as reading and writing.  The themes and ideas brought up by this research then feed back into the physical act of making and are a way of continuing my practice as an artist. 

I am principally interested in the object’s ability to act as a carrier for personal or social meaning.  Part of my exploration of this is to present and comment on their counter ability to be viewed as empty, meaningless and alienating.  For me, the designed object is a representation of human will over nature and man’s need for the meaningful to be made tangible. 

I graduated in 2011 with an MA in Goldsmtihing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery from the Royal College of Art in London.  In 2010 I was fortunate enough to win The South Square Trust Scholarship and I have exhibited internationally, most notably as part of a group show Silver Where? at Gallery SO, Brick Lane, London and Let’s Have a Look at Gallery Marzee, Nijmegen, Holland.

Natalia Macia Bove

Born in Spain and having obtained degrees in different disciplines in Spain, France and the UK, jewellery designer Natalia Macia Bove is a recently graduated MA student from Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design in London, where she graduated with Distinction. In her first exhibition at Schmuck we observe the expression of her fascination in human connections and fractal geometry using technology as a tool to transform a mundane material like nylon into jewellery pieces.

She finds in the use of modern technology a valuable new tool to democratise design in order to make it available to a wider part of the population and attempts to explore the marriage of the classic and the contemporary into a “future craft”.

Natalia’s portfolio includes work that stems from her interest in mathematics, using formulas to generate 3D forms and also a collection of pieces expressing simple narratives using hand gestures, a subject of study that has

 always been appealing to her.

“My work, and the techniques and materials I use, reflects the way I have expanded my research methods.  Within the multidisciplinary Design Suite Masters program, I have explored the expression of meaning through the interplay of hands and hand gestures, which was a shift from a focus in mathematical algorithms towards a more emotion-centered design.”

Natalia has recently moved to Qatar, in the Middle East. She is currently working on design commissions from private clients and building up a collection and is very excited to integrate new influences in her design practice.

Robert Longyear

OK. - WE’RE STANDING HERE, AN’ WE FIND OURSELVES BETWEEN OUR FALLIBLE NATURE AND A BOUYANT SPIRIT OF HOPE.

every once in a while red is drawn to red - an’ if you want something from an audience, you have to give blood to their fantasies

an’ every once in a while the whites of your eyes go pop because he was on creep and he knows he shouldn’t have been

an’ i’m not tryin’ to rob you, was jus wandering if you were about to buy groceries

hold on a minute – let me get out of this car an’ at least stand up as tall as you

i’m not even hungry, i jus need gas in that big ol’ car to pick up my babies an’ was wondering if you could cash me out if i bought your food with my EBT

an’ every once in a while, red is drawn to red like his babies are @ a deficit if they’re waiting an’ they’re hungry

an’ every once in a while red meets red an’ the whites of your eyes go pop because maybe you believe him an’ he’s in a tight spot an’ maybe just waiting is worse than waiting while hungry

hold on a minute, okay – let me get this straight, you want to follow me around this store while i pick up stuff-s for dinner – an’ you wanna swipe your card like the idea of hungry mouths to me is supposed to be business

yeah, i’ll EBT twice as much as you pay me out for

okay – we’ll keep this short an’ just enough to roll a car without rolling over a system like the idea of hungry mouths to me is supposed to be business

an’ the produce at this store is bottom rung, like lack of vitamins, like undernourished mouths is big business an’ clean up on all aisles

12 dollars an’ 81 cent – no double down – Phat Pharm an’ a trinity go triple up – here’s what’s left:

the aisles are clean an’ his babies are good now – they’re good little girls - no waiting an’ no cursing less they have to deal with those ghetto girls whose necks go pop like the whites of your eyes go pop

OK. - REMEMBER, THERE’S A BUREACRACY TO OPPOSABLE THUMBS.

OK. - THE DAYS ARE ALL WILD, FOOD IN THE STREETS AND CLEAN UP IN ALL AISLES. 

OK. - A CITY RUNNIN’ WITH ITS SCISSORS OUT WILL LEAVE YOU KINDA WEEPY…

Farrah Al-Dujaili

Farrah Al-Dujaili is a British Art Jeweller. Farrah studied a BA in Jewellery and Silversmithing at the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University and then went on to complete a MA in Jewellery, Silversmithing and Related Products in 2010. After completing her studies, Farrah set up her own workshop to continue her practice. Her work has been exhibited internationally in shows including ‘Talente’ and ’25 Years of Galerie Louise Smit’. Farrah is also the recipient of the Art Jewelry Forum ‘Emerging Artist’ award and will subsequently have her work exhibited at SOFA New York and COLLECT London in 2012.

“ My design methodology revolves around the act of drawing as an intuitive and subconscious process; geometric and organic components ‘grow’ alongside each other to create visual contrasts. I work within an intuitive mix of drawing and making that crosses over and intertwines. The drawings are a starting point where compositions and forms are explored. The intuitive decision process learnt through drawing is transferred into my making practices. A section within a drawing can instigate the creation of multiple three-dimensional forms as I draw directly with the wire. Hybrid forms are created not overtly floral, but organic and playful. It is in the construction of these fragments that the layering of line and form creates the idiosyncratic detailing that appear in my drawings.

I enjoy the moment just before a piece comes together, where a combination of forms just suddenly looks right to me. The spontaneous making process requires quick, intuitive aesthetic judgements playing with angles and positioning of forms in an attempt to achieve a mixture of negative space and form. The unexpected detailing from an extra hammer mark or additional length of wire is where the excitement of the making process comes together. I attempt to keep questioning what I can change? Whether that be form, scale, dimension, thickness of wires or the amount of detail and ornamentation. The subsequent work aims to reflect the freedom of drawing within each piece. 

Melanie Codarin

Food for Thought

What are you eating and how is it produced?
Industrial farming systems are highly productive but at what cost…

The Food for Thought series is a self-directed project that aims to provoke thought about the negative implications of industrial farming processes. The notion of ‘change’ is explored visually through modified generic figurative shapes and borrows on the language of badges. On the back of the pieces are sourced quotes.

Melanie aims to create tension and a second look through the juxtaposition of mutated figures and the lightness and beauty of the materials used.

Her work is inspired by ‘graphic’ forms, natural and man-made, she modifies or even mutates the things she sees, and create new contexts for them so they take on a new life, and new perceived meanings for the wearer. She enjoy seeing the narrative organically unfold and the influence that different materials have on the new forms.

Computer technologies as well as hand drawing play a key role in Melanie's creative process, as does the use of mixed media with a particular preference for wood and its derivatives. An important part of her practice is ethically sensitive production choices and sourcing of materials.