Scottish Jewellery Week
These Hands Hosted by Dundee Design Festival
Foreword The creative scene in Scotland is vast and unique; from the visual arts to the performative, digital, audio, textile and jewellery, all form a major part of the overarching scene. The jewellery industry is multi-disciplinary, as much a part of the arts as it is a part of craft or design. Scotland has an array of talented makers and is renowned for their innovation and craftsmanship; the Goldsmiths’ industry is no exception. Scottish Jewellery Week is a biennial festival celebrating and responding to the Goldsmiths’ industry. Scotland is steeped in history, design, innovation and craft; Scottish Jewellery Week showcases this. ‘These Hands’ is an exhibition that explores the relationship makers has with making “I make to exude my curiosity of the everyday in which I question etiquette and routine.” Using live casts of each of the exhibitor’ s hands, they will act as displays for their unique work. Asking you to not only contemplate what has been made but who has made it. SJW has invited Dundee based jeweller, Islay Spalding to set up a livestudio within West Ward. We ask you to delve into the process of making and understand what makes a jeweller. Islay will be asked to design and make a piece of jewellery inspired by; Dundee, The Design Festival or West Ward Works and the final piece will be auctioned at the end of The Design Festival. A ‘Jewellery Trail’ will lead you out of West Ward Works and around Dundee to discover the cities own talented jewellers in unsuspecting places. SJW will showcase the talented jewellers that Dundee has to offer whilst hanging out in Dundee’s coolest spaces.
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Cover photography: Andrew Tibbles. Image: Silver Vase, Kathryn Hinton
Exhibitors Alison Philips Design Dunblane
Alison set up her workshop after graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2005, designing and creating work for Galleries and Exhibitions, from her workshop in Dunblane. Inspired by natural forms, from plants and vines, to the pattern left in the sand by the tide, Alison first records her ideas through sketches, drawings, and photography before translating her designs into silver, forming feminine and delicate pieces. “My jewellery explores space and movement around the wearer’s body. I love to incorporate hand drawn elements using the ancient Korean technique of Keumboo to apply Gold to the surface of the Silver. Contrasting colour and texture fascinates me, and I seek to manipulate this by working with silver, oxidised silver, Keumboo Gold decoration.” Alison often uses Gemstones such as Pearl, Rose Quartz and Green Amethyst to add colour and contrast to the hand textured silver.
Why does making matter to you? I think about jewellery all the time, it is an obsession that I have learnt to live with. Making things with my hands helps me relax and my jewellery is a creative outlet that allows me to explore and express what I see inside my head. Drawing and photography is an important part of my work, allowing me to records ideas and inspiration before translating them into silver. I love the tactile quality that you can achieve with silver; it can be soft and gentle, or hard and angular, depending on the finish you apply. @alison030303 alisonphilipsjewellery alisonphilips.co.uk 3
Aubin Stewart Aubeebop Jewellery Aberdeen
I am a self-employed jewellery designer and arts practitioner based in Aberdeen. Practising from my studio workshop in Aberdeen my designs are created using a mixture of precious and non-precious materials to create micro ranges and one-off unique designs which are sold through galleries, exhibitions and pop up events throughout the UK. Traditional silver-smithing techniques are employed along with digital laser printing methods on materials such as wood and acrylic.
Why does making matter to you? My life is all about making, whether it is making for myself, for a project or sharing my skills with others how to make. Having an idea and the pursuit of bringing it to a conclusion matters to me personally in the reward that it provides me with through a greater understanding of design, skill and problem solving. @aubeebop @aubeebopjewellery aubinstewartjewellert aubeebopjewellery.com
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Gemma Brownlie Glasgow
Gemma’s work celebrates the traditional Danish concept “Hygge”, a word with no English translation, which embodies feelings such as cosiness, intimacy and contentment. For Gemma it is the indescribable feeling of sitting inside on a rainy day with a warm drink or gathering around a camp fire in the early evening with a few friends. Her intentions are to create a collection of vessels that bring comfort to the owner, where they can create their own meaning to the Danish word. By combining fine silver with coloured yarn, Gemma strives to make her pieces soft and sensual by bringing warmth to what is seen as a cold metal.
Why does making matter to you? Making matters to me, as it is something I am extremely passionate about. Within my practice I have chosen to focus on learning traditional silversmithing techniques. The process involved in creating a vessel has a repetitive nature, which unusually I find calming and soothing. Like many crafts you never stop learning new and innovative ways to create, design and produce final pieces. This aspect will always keep me interested and help me develop myself as a maker. @gemmabrownlie_ Gemmabrownliesilversmith gemmabrownlie.com 5
Islay Spalding Dundee
Islay Spalding’s aim in jewellery design and making is to create unique pieces that are unusual and distinctive yet practical and pleasing to wear. She believes in quality craftsmanship and meaningful design and specialises in bespoke commissions for kilt pins and contemporary jewellery. Islay’s kilt pins are an abstract take on the traditional style and fabricated in silver using a variety of techniques. She uses elements such as grooves and notches to signify dates, hillscapes, landscapes and coastal outlines and pieces of music or lyrics or reworkings of clan crests to bring that personal meaning to the design and make it completely unique to the wearer. Since sharing a workshop with woodworker, Louise Forbes, she has developed a range of one-off wood and silver Kilt Pins, the Grain and Glint Series, using offcuts from her spoons and chopping boards. They also collaborate in creating the Man Pin, wooden lapel or kilt pins for men and aim to inspire more men to wear brooches!
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Islay’s jewellery is a constantly evolving range of unique pieces inspired by the thoughts, ideas, colours and forms found in European Surrealist and Abstract Art; especially the works of Desmond Morris, Yves Tanguay, Miro and Kandinsky. Silver is combined with hand-dyed resins to form colourful and chunky sculptural shapes that are then translated into rings, pendants and brooches for the Biomorph, Biocube and Small World Collections. Islay also works with silver, 18ct Gold, precious and semi-precious stones to create rough and sparkly Flotsam and Jetsam pieces, Treasure Rings and is now working on a collection of engagement and wedding rings inspired by her love of the Scottish landscape using Cairngorm stones. Offshoots from these works have spawned to create sub-collections of their own, Sweet Sweet Jewellery, Thritty Pings, Oddgons and Angulars, each growing and developing in their own ways.
Why does Making mater to you? Making jewellery matters to me because it’s a way I can express my ideas and earn a living, a productive outlet for my imagination. @islayspalding @islayspalding Islayspalding.jewellery islayspalding.co.uk
Joanne MacFadyen Dundee
Joanne MacFadyen is an award winning Scottish jeweller currently based in Dundee, graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of art with a bachelor of design degree with honors in 2010 and completing a Master of Fine Art in 2012. In the summer of 2014 Joanne set up Tea Green Events, hosting unique pop up events to showcase the wealth of creative talent based in Scotland. In 2012 to 2013 Joanne was Vanilla Ink Studio’s first Artist in Residence, during this time Joanne developed a series of new collections. Her year as Vanilla Ink resident closed with the launch of her residency debut collection at International Jewellery London in September. Her work is lead by a love of experimenting with materials and techniques and driven by a wide-eyed attitude to the world. Joanne works with precious metals, precious metal clays, enamel & gemstones to create unique jewellery that have a decadently organic aesthetic. She is passionate about creating beautiful & unique handmade jewellery, with her pieces ranging from something for everyday wear to that one off show stopping piece.
Why does making matter to you? Making matters to me because I feel it’s an integral part of me as an individual, both on a personal level and as a creative professional. It’s how I express myself, how I relax, how I explore concepts, how I re engage and centre myself and how I play, how I develop my practice and aesthetic and how I understand materials. @JoanneMacfadyen @JoanneMacfadyen Joannemacfadyen.jewellery joannemacfadyen.com 7
Jo Pudelko Edinburgh
Jo Pudelko is a material led designer/maker and a compulsive collector of ‘stuff’. Her work consists of mixed media jewellery and smallscale sculptural objects with the occasional accompanying screen print. She creates works for exhibition and sale from a ramshackle caravan parked at the foot of the beautiful Ochil hills. Jo frequently works with found objects and her work stems from a personal interest in the amount of waste generated by modern society, particularly how we fail to take advantage of the resources and inspiration offered by everyday objects. She is fascinated by the way we interact with consumer goods, many of them very deliberately designed to be used once and then thrown away. Drawing inspiration from items destined for the landfill and working with a range of materials such as resin and precious metals Jo wants her jewellery to provoke a discussion about what we consider to be disposable and what is precious to us. The aesthetic of her work often evokes a subtle sense of familiarity or an ‘echo’ that is derived from the many objects she has collected and then used to inspire her work. The resulting pieces are unique and thought provoking as they seek to combine seemingly contradictory qualities; they are past and present, junk and treasure all at the same time. 8
Why does making matter to you? More than a designer I am a maker. For me, making can be understood very simply as a creative process that has a physical or material connection. I sketch and I draw but it is when I sit down at my bench with material and tools that jewellery begins to make sense to me. Making is how I resolve problems, make important decisions and even choose colours. I tend to work with mixed media and found objects, which mean that the working properties of my materials are not always apparent. This makes hands-on experimentation even more important to my work as I’m not always sure how a particular material will react when I start to work with it. It also means that I am constantly evolving and learning as try to incorporate some new material into my work. I sometimes envy jewellers who work in a more traditional way but I’m like a magpie and can’t imagine restricting myself to one or two materials. I make because I am passionate about making and because it makes me feel good. I love the drive and anticipation I feel when I’m experimenting with a new piece and I can’t imagine working in any other way. @jopudelko @jopudelkojewellery jopudelkojewellery jopudelko.co.uk
Karen Smith Dundee
I’m passionate about music. I love the hidden stories within songs and the affect they have on us. This is where I draw my inspiration from which I then translate into my quirky storybook jewellery. Each piece is handamade by me from my workshop in Dundee, Scotland, making each item slightly different and unique in its own way I work in precious metals and semi-precious gemstones such as garnets, citrines and onyx. Detail is key in my work and a variety of traditional jewellery making techniques are used to achieve this. I enjoy creating Jewellery which is wearable but also very individual and interesting to look at. I like to think my jewellery says something about the wearer without actually disclosing it. Almost like wearing a secret in full view without everyone being aware of it, unless you really want them to.
Why does making matter to you? As long as I can remember I have been interested in 3 dimensional forms and fascinated in how to create them. I was never just happy with drawing. I always wanted to take things a step further and create actual objects from my ideas and sketches. Making gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction. Being able to create something for someone which is not only tangible but perhaps holds sentimental value is an amazing feeling. It is also in many ways extremely cathartic for me. Having suffered badly from chronic anxiety all my life I’m only ever truly happy and in the moment when I am making; allowing me to switch off and truly get engrossed in what I am doing. @kasjewellery @kasjewellery ksjewelleryandmetaldesign ksjewelleryandmetaldesign
Of course the stories I create within my work are up for interpretation by the viewer/wearer. Perhaps the story I connect with the piece is not the story the person who wears it associates with it. After all everyone’s perception is different. However, the most important thing about my work is that the wearer connects with it on a personal level making it more than just a pretty object.
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Kathleen Reily Glasgow
My work is concerned with dining presentation and hospitality, particularly the interactions occurring during mealtime. In reinventing the common place I aim to challenge and transform our dining experience with sculptural art forms. My designs are playful and conceptual with a focus on enhancing the users’ experiences. I allow new insights by exceeding the traditional expectations entrenched in contemporary dining practice while perceiving eating as a ritual which should be altered and enhanced. Eating and drinking are pursuits followed in many parts of our daily routine making my work relevant and engaging to a mass audience. Regarding this field all materials used are food safe, this includes a range of manipulated found objects as well as traditional materials. My choice of objects and materials ensure that although my designs are unconventional they relate aesthetically on the tabletop.
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Why does making matter to you? Making allows us to communicate our artistic ideals; I create work with an aim to transform design and objects into something more poetic, an outlet that can bring those who observe my work into another world. I make to exude my curiosity of the everyday in which I question etiquette and routine. Fascinated by problem solving I explore not only my own frustration with the lack of imagination that can often be present in the mundane tasks but allow others to consider in a different manner, therefore humour is important to me and my work should be viewed light heartedly. @Kathleenleen kathleenreilly.co.uk
Kathryn Hinton Edinburgh Merging traditional ideas with digital technology Kathryn Hinton’s faceted silver work explores form and surface using computer aided design software. She uses different methods of manufacture from the use of traditional hand skills to digital technology. Her work is realised in precious metal using processes such as Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling and press forming, rapid prototyping and lost wax casting process.
Why does making matter to you? Making and material exploration is an important part of my practice. I have spent time learning the traditional skills involved in working with silver and other materials. I have also always been interested in computer aided design and processes of digital manufacture and their possibilities in making. I see these digital processes as another tool or skill in the tool box and use it to create things I could not do by hand. I believe craftspeople should have a good understanding of hand skills as it is important to understand how something can be made or finished well. @kathryn_hinton @KATHRYN_HINTON_ KathrynHintonJewellery kathrynhinton.com
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Kathryn Williamson Pittenweem
Kathryn Williamson’s jewellery is inspired by her collection of personal treasure trove. This includes inherited and found objects, fragments of pottery from Fife beach walks, plus pattern from collected or inherited ceramics/textiles. These all inform her choice of colour, shape and texture when designing. Ideas are developed through sketching then experimentation at the bench. Elements of enamel, found pottery, acrylic and occasionally semi precious stones are combined with textured or etched silver shapes to create her stunningly unique jewellery which evokes a sense of calm and memory in the wearer. Art school trained with over 12 years professional experience in the London jewellery industry, Kathryn moved back to her native Fife in 2000 to start her own business in her Pittenweem workshop overlooking the Firth of Forth.
Why does making matter to you? The creative process from sketching, taking photos, drawing and designing to experiments at the bench through to making final well crafted pieces is a life long passion. After making for over 20 years I am discovering how my own identity is explored through designing and making jewellery, connecting me to family and my past drawing on elements in my background through exploring Scotland’s decorative heritage. The physical making process also connects me to my father and grandfather who were both practical makers of various objects and always enjoyed working and pottering in their workshops. @-kathrynwilliamson @Ktwill KathrynWilliamsonJewellery kathrynwilliamson.com
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Katie Lees Glasgow
A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art Katie is a designer/ maker whose unique style is defined by the perhaps incongruous concept of creating finely crafted jewellery, of silver and semiprecious stones, from the heavy industrial aesthetic of the shipbuilding history that has moulded her home city of Glasgow. The language is drawn not only from the beauty of the pragmatic forms and robust engineering of the ships themselves but also from the remnants of the industry that formed them and once defined the industrial aesthetic of the river and her city. From her studio in the heart of Glasgow, these evocative forms are translated by hand into finely crafted jewellery. Her unique style lends itself well to bold statement pieces as well as smaller, more subtle forms. Crafted from precious metals, each piece is hand finished, plated and hallmarked in Scotland
Why does making matter to you? I love the tactility of making and the personal satisfaction of feeling a piece come together and seeing the final result. @kleesjewellery @kleesjewellery katieleesjewellery katieleesjewellery.com
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Kelly Munro Glasgow
I am a Scottish designer born on the North Coast, which my jewellery is inspired by. I run my small jewellery business from Glasgow and exhibit over the UK and internationally. My inspiration is drawn from my heritage and homeland. I was born in a small town in the far north coast of Scotland, well known for its historical fishing industry. I am surrounded by small abandoned ports around the coast, and have had a particular interest in fishing equipment used in the past and present. This inspiration is reflected in the lobster pots as a starting point for my graduation show work. This has evolved through stages of material exploration and settled at the combination of ‘weathering’ wood and traditional metal techniques. The technique of intricate saw piercing enables me to create nets and lightweight structures. I aim to shadow the forms of the nets and pots, and loosely interpret these shapes in my own way. The technique of pyrography plays an important role in my pieces allowing me to create often detailed patterns combines with charred edges and loose paint strokes, mirroring the intricately knotted nets of the trade combined with wind beaten driftwood. My work aims to portray the rustic look of items found near harbours and tide lines.
Why does making matter to you? Making is a creative outlet for me as well as a chance to use practical skills. I think the process of making is key and even more important to celebrate it and keep it alive. @kmunrojewellery @Kellymunrojewellery kellymunrojewellery kellymunrojewellery.com
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Morna Darling Glasgow
Pattern making is an important part in Morna Darling’s process and she is fascinated with the structural repeated elements of fabric and how to emulate these in her jewellery. Her work takes inspiration from fabrics and clothing and she is interested in representing the qualities of cloth such as layering, threading and folding. Using different materials from her source, allows Morna playful exploration of how to create aspects of textiles whilst not actually including them in her work. She experiments with a combination of materials including silver, patinated copper and plastic. Working with a subtle palette of blues and silver Morna creates wearable pieces with texture, pattern and unique compositions of materials.
Why does making matter to you? Making matters immensely to me. I love working with multiple materials and all of my jewellery is hand-fabricated. I think there is something very special about being able to create bespoke work that is not mass produced and instead made with my own two hands. @MornaDarling @mornadarlingjewellery Morna-Darling-Jewellery mornadarlingjewellery.com
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Sophie Warringham Glasgow
For my degree show I created a showcase of jewellery based on my childhood trips to the seaside. I find my inspiration in colour and patterns, in particular shades of blue that have a light and translucent quality. I often look to the sea and sky as many of my interests come from the forms that they naturally produce. I like to manipulate the layers of these forms to build up textures and depth to both the colours and patterns within my work. From a child’s point of view I imagine walking along the beach finding objects and wondering where they could have came from. I aim to have that same instant reaction of an exciting coastal find when looking at my jewellery. By doing this I aim to give the viewer and wearer a sense of being near the seaside and that perhaps the jewellery could have been once been a part of the coast. When developing my work I simultaneously switch between 2d sketchbooks and 3d samples. By working from photographs and then developing textured drawings from them, which I then develop into metal work and jewellery. In doing this I can focus my attention on the fine textures and depth of colour in my jewellery.
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Why does making matter to you? For me making is an incredibly important way of designing and being creative. I feel the need to use my imagination and creative mind everyday and making a physical, wearable object at the end really excites me. Through working in many different mediums, including photography, inks and paints, I start to generate ideas and samples to then try to recreate in a physical object. That is one of the reasons I love creating jewellery, to create something that you can wear and interact with. @sophiewarringhamjewellery Sophiewarringhamjewellery sophiewarringham.com
Tina MacLeod Inverinate Scottish designer maker Tina MacLeod creates tactile pieces of jewellery that evoke a sense of place. The concept of the island and the unique atmosphere of the Hebridean coastal woodland are central to her work, capturing an essence of that sensed but unexplained aura often experienced within the forest. By using precious metal techniques that produce delicate but deliberate layers of surface texture, she is able to convey a sense of the ephemeral nature of the living landscape. Designing through making, she works intuitively with natural materials gathered from specific places, and by exploring hollow forms, creates jewellery which represents a connection to place which is realised through the importance of touch. Ultimately, each object becomes a representation of the viewer and wearer’s story, the original meaning transcends. The origin belongs to the maker, embedded within the piece but the meaning distorts and evolves as different people find their own connection with it.
Why does Making Matter to you? The importance of touch is central to my work. The act of gathering natural materials from the environment around me fuels my creativity. Exploring surface textures on different materials from fallen wood and shed bark in the forest to eroded shells and rocks on the shore, allows me to examine their qualities of detail and form. I create marks on precious metals with hand tools, in particular ‘heritage’ hammers found in old family sheds. They have a history embedded within them, every pit and groove within the metal could tell a story which I can transfer onto a new metal surface. The handles are smooth and worn from being held, showing many decades of use. @tinaalexmacleod @tinaalexmacleod TinaMacleodJewellery tinamacleod.com
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Win a Wax Carving Class C A R V E is a pop-up jewellery workshop inviting you to experience something a bit different. Using jeweller’s wax you C A R V E a ring. The wax is then sent to cast in solid silver and then returned to the carver. C A R V E will be popping up in West Ward Works during the Design Festival on the 27th May, 3-5pm and as part of the Jewellery Trail, you have a chance of winning a C A R V E class at BrewDog Dundee, 12th June 2-4pm. Join us on the trail and answer all the questions to win. wearecarve.com | @C_A_R_V_E
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