Seeing Colour

2nd July - 24th September 2016

 

These inspiring jewellers come together in this fascinating showcase highlighting the beauty of colour in jewellery; explored through various techniques and made from a variety of exciting and innovative materials by inspiring British makers across the UK.

 

Cecile Gilbert - Tiki

Originally from France, Cécile Gilbert is a jeweller living and working in Brighton.  She launched Tiki in 2012.  Her main medium is polyester resin, which she combines with oxidised Sterling silver.  Inspired by Bakelite jewellery of the 1920s and mid 20th century design, she has created a range of contemporary jewellery that reflects those qualities, whilst adding a 21st century sophistication.  Stripes and patterns are created by casting her first pieces in a single colour.  These are then cut into segments, cleaned and recast in a binding colour of resin to produce the final design.  Once cured, each piece is worked, firstly on a band sander and then hand sanded through 3 grades before the final polish.  Cecile currently works within a tight palette of cherry red, olive green and teal blue and she mixes her own pigments to get the exact hue and shade.

 

Emily Kidson

Emily makes mixed-media contemporary jewellery which combines a minimal aesthetic with splashes of colour and clusters of details.  Her signature pieces are made with laminate, walnut and silver although I enjoy using other materials including acrylic and 18ct gold.  Inspiration is taken from repetition and small details in the everyday, from spots on the pavement to stripy steps at a railway station.  Emily uses her sketchbook to draw initial designs and these then develop further as she works intuitively with the materials; it is often the process of making that inspires her.  Emily makes everything by hand, cutting, sanding and waxing for a beautifully smooth finish.  The back of her pieces are as important as the front and she often includes special details there.

 

Jenny Llewellyn

Jenny Llewellyn is an award winning jewellery designer-maker based at Cockpit Arts in Holborn, London.  Inspired by the luminous colours, shapes and movement of underwater life, Jenny’s work is characterised by handcrafted, organic forms of precious metals, combined with vibrant bursts of silicone.  Jenny’s practice is driven by experimentation; with colour and with material, combining precious with non-precious, to create tactile and fun pieces, available in the full spectrum of colours, from discreet pops of monochrome to full statement colour-fades.  Central to Jenny’s practice is her pioneering use of silicone.  Often mistaken for glass or plastic, silicone is surprisingly soft, light and durable, resulting in unique and wearable contemporary jewellery design; a real celebration of colour.

 

Yuka Jourdain

Born and raised in Japan, Yuka has lived in France and now resides in Derbyshire.  Multi-cultural experiences and encounters are reflected in her work as are her surroundings.  She admires the intricate details of natural forms where complicated and wonderful shapes fit together to form perfect symmetries and she is inspired the grandeur and beauty surrounding her home in Derbyshire’s High Peak.  Yuka Jourdain designs and creates mixed media jewellery in an elegant and colourful contemporary style.  Each piece is unique and intricately hand crafted to achieve a wearable, comfortable and stylish piece of art.  She selects high quality natural fibres, incorporating the beauty and comfort of wool which she hand felts, with man-made shaped wire.  By carefully combining and hand stitching these components with thread, Yuka manipulates them into three-dimensional natural inspired shapes.

 

Sarah Lindsay

Scottish designer Sarah Lindsay has been developing her use of acrylic since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2002.  Her innovative technique of making her own material from acrylic particles is why her work is entitled the 'Dust Collection'.  The name suggests change and the eroded looking edges of the thin slices inherent within her collection are reminiscent of minerals like agate; built up in layers over time.  These translucent slices of acrylic are then made into lightweight jewellery designs.  Sarah's design approach is to make simple pieces for everyday use.  Comfort is central in her lightweight earrings, mouldable necklaces, magnetic brooches and wrap bangles. 

 

Emily Knight

Emily graduated from Glasgow School of Art and her influences include India’s vibrant, bright culture and the differences between the east and the west.  Emily creates pieces with a variety of patterns, colours and hand cut details.  Simple yet elegant lines and shapes developed by Oriental painters to suggest botanical forms have helped to create the structure for her recent work.  By finely hand piercing intricate organic forms, she then uses the process of enamelling to create a strong colour palette and combines this with her expressive mark making.

 

Gail Klevan 

Gail uses a variety of techniques to create her bold jewellery including cutting, heating, and moulding block, sheet and compounds to produce shapes, while other pieces are cast, laser-cut or moulded.  Gail has developed her own processes to integrate a variety of materials into the decoration which she applies individually to every piece and assembles every one by hand, so no two pieces are entirely the same.  Her inspiration comes from many different sources; from nature, from ethnic traditions, from the ideas of various artists and artistic schools, modern architecture and the wallpaper and textile designs of the 1950’s.  "I find solid acrylic the most fascinating and versatile of 3-D media.  It combines deep transparency with the most surprising reflectivity via internal surfaces.  It is capable of capturing light, colour and form which it reflects back in myriad ways.  It can be coloured or clear, patterned or plain, smooth or textured in any combination to fit the mood.  But I don’t just love it for its visual complexity and impact, but because it adapts so well to being worn as jewellery, both as adornment and as art."

 

Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry gained a BA Hons in Ceramics at Camberwell School of Art where she was taught and influenced most by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. Driven by her passion for clay, her inspiration comes from seascapes and landscapes and textures found in nature.  Intensely coloured glazes of blue, turquoise, purple, pink and green make vibrant porcelain lustred jewellery; earrings, brooches, necklaces and cufflinks as well as her beautiful collection of vessels and bowls.  Some are decorated with coloured and metallic lustres.  In the late seventies she lived and worked in Argentina, exhibiting in Buenos Aires in between journeys around South America.  During the nineties her work was sold at Liberties, Heals, and The Conran Shops in London, Paris and Tokyo.  After this,her work slowly took on the 'sea palette', renewing her love of Cornwall ,particularly the artistic legacy of St.Ives.

 

Hazel Atkinson

Hazel Atkinson is a leading contemporary anodized aluminium jewellery designer living and working in Nottingham.  After graduating from Loughborough College of Art and Design Hazel established her business in 1984 and built an enviable reputation for bold, colourful and eye catching design.  This collection has evolved through a painstaking process of experimentation and elimination using various dying, printing and painting techniques to finally produce a collection of strong vivid colours and intricate patterns.

 

Zincwhite

Zincwhite is an upcycling project based in Huddersfield which designs and handcrafts contemporary jewellery and fashion accessories.  One of their most popular rnages uses recycled Derwent colouring pencils.  The waste pencils are taken straight from the factory and transformed into their unique pieces.  The hardwoods used in some pieces are often tropical and are salvaged from old furniture and building sites.  “Our aim is to change the way society thinks about waste and fashion."