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.

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.