My Process
The act of creating jewellery to me, a maker, means having a deep understanding of your material. It is a process made by the hands to be worn on the body. How something feels in between my hands as I’m working with it or wearing it is a constant source of inspiration and the process allows me to think and design through making. My intention is to handle my pieces from start to finish, unlike wax casting or computer aided designing, metalsmithing requires an intuitive relationship with metal. I make patterned sheets by combining brass and silver, this, I see as my raw material and I allow the potential and limits or unpredictable qualities of it to influence my making.
The rigid shapes within the pattern describe the interest I have in traditional craftsmanship techniques such as mokumé and intricate soldering whereas the fluidity of the pieces in the form of glitches or unpredictable distortion reflects the fluidity of my thought process whilst making. By combining forging with detailed piercing and carving the pattern transforms as I manipulate it into jewellery, this is the conversation between myself and my material. Allowing the material and process of making to inform the final form. I cannot predict how my mokume will distort as it is squashed and flattened, nor can I always predict how the pattern might shift accidentally whilst soldering. However, I see all these elements that others might call imperfections, as proof of something being made by a human. Through leaving the marks of making this work is a statement of admiration and homage to the wonders of the handmade.
By allowing the metal's response to my manipulation to guide my process I am exploring the notion that lived experience and intuition alongside a respect and understanding of your material are the most important catalysts for the production of wearable art. These factors are the most influential on the way this art is perceived, and not what the artist thought they were doing. I am inspired by Merleau-Ponty’s theory in Phenomenology of Perception that perception is not a detached, intellectual process but a pre-rational, embodied engagement with the world. The message of my work is that intuition guides process or meaning and that it is not a pre-decided concept that drives my production of jewellery.
Within my collection I feel it is important to showcase more intricate and controlled patterns alongside the pieces where I have allowed the qualities of the material to dictate its final appearance. I am not aiming to suggest that handmade jewellery cannot be perfect or is an excuse for imprecision, rather I am suggesting that the process of learning and the desire to achieve perfection is one worth celebrating along the way. In a world where the current climate makes it so easy to lose appreciation for the tangible world to the speed and ease of technology my pieces convey a desire of holding onto the slow and nurtured processes of craftsmanship.