I am on my annual holiday in Canada with our family over here and in somewhat of a reflective mood.
Being so new to the designer toy scene I feel the need to look back to where I started, for myself but also to share with people who might wonder who on earth I am. This isn’t going to be long winded, so please don’t stop reading now.
I am going to start 13 years ago with work from my Degree Show at Edinburgh College of Art, I graduated in 1999 in Applied Arts and I’ll say with a bit of a brag, (but I’m proud) a 1st Class Honours Degree. I am so very proud of this, partly for the reason that I had the courage to do my own thing. And ‘my own thing’ confused my tutors a great deal.
Although my department of Jewellery and Silversmithing was a pretty open minded one, I stretched them a bit with my abstract characters which were made up of shapes that also performed as brooches.
The thing was, that even in my first year designing functional jewellery forms, I just couldn’t pull myself away from the powerful desire to create otherwordly creatures, and it’s still what drives me today. But I also have a designer in me and I like a bit of function with my form!
“A Wa Wa What..?” Was inspired by my painting above and I stayed pretty true to it!
The main figure splits into 2 brooches and stands on a base diameter approx 60cm. The theme is confusion and indecision. The little clones with trumpet heads symbolise all the options and possibilities being shouted out, and the poor soul in the spotlight doesn’t know what to listen to or which way to turn.
Mixed media, Limewood, silver and enamel.
Not the most practical of jewellery I know.
“Laugh Your Head Off” is my genius punn, as the head of the character came off to be worn as a brooch.
I used a spring for one of the eyes to give it some bounce and add to the fun element of the theme. Truly mixed media, I used Plaster, Limewood, Oxidised silver, copper, enamel and a touch of gold on this baby.
“Televisions For Heads” stood on a meter long base (please excuse the poor photograph) I guess it was about being lost and unable to tune in. Both the characters roaming the barron landscape have no signal in their tv heads which also double as tv brooches. They had an image of the static tv embedded in resin and polished to look like an old fashioned glass television.
All my little installations each had a story to tell and were enhanced with sound effects specific to each one. I think you can maybe now imagine how different this was standing in a room full of, albeit very contemporary and boundary pushing in form and materials jewellery but nonetheless it was jewellery. But my weird mind was well received.
I can’t believe that this is 13 years ago now.
To be continued…
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