Rooms For Ideas. Contemporary Jewellery by The Line Up.

Copyright Š 2011 The Line Up First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Zetetic Press www.zetetic.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic or mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9569773-1-1

Book design and layout by Playne Design www.playnedesign.co.uk Printed in Great Britain by Banbury Litho

Contents

Foreword Jo McAllister

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Introduction Simone ten Hompel

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Jennifer Kidd Sub-Arctic Room

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Susanne Freytag Plains Indian room

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Paula Thittichai Sussex Pottery Room

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Amy Madge Lower Durbar Hall

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Maxime Wareham Upper Durbar Hall

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Wendy-Sarah Pacey The Long Gallery

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Julie Tucker-Williams Logie Baird Room

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Jo McAllister Wildlife Room

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About the contemporary jewellers Acknowledgments

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Foreword Jo McAllister

1 Moving Dialogue, 2003 and Dialogue IV, 2004 — Staff, students and alumni of London Metropolitan University, and Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, Florence, Italy.

Exhibited in London, Florence and Munich.

2 Pieces of Eight, 2005 and Imiteight, 2006 — Studio 399, a collective of eight London based makers.

Exhibited at Clerkenwell Green Association.

Five years ago I was introduced to Jennifer Kidd at a Crafts Council event at the De La Warr Pavilion, in East Sussex. We soon got together again to talk jewellery and over time we met others keen to do the same. One evening in May 2009, some of us friends and some of us strangers, we came together as a group for the first time.

Meeting monthly, showing and talking about our work to each other, we called ourselves The Line Up. We progressed from talking jewellery to giving workshops and sharing skills, and eventually found ourselves searching for a joint project. We felt that exhibiting together would provide the sense of excitement and purpose that we were looking for, and were inspired by the random nature of the briefs for the Dialogue1 and Studio 3992 projects. I had been involved in both, and Wendy-Sarah Pacey in the latter.

An exhibition requires a venue. Hastings Museum & Art Gallery impressed us with the calibre of its temporary exhibitions and charmed us with its idiosyncratic mixture of collections. Jennifer Kidd, who was born and grew up locally, has known the museum since childhood. Julie Tucker-Williams was married in the Durbar Hall. These and other connections made it a perfect fit.

Rooms for ideas is a collective rather than a curated project. The works in it illustrate the varied and reflective practices of the makers, show the development of creative themes generated by chance and chart the various journeys taken. We hope that our experiment will encourage others to view our museums with fresh eyes, as rich and varied sources of inspiration.

At the start we made a commitment, individually and as a group, to challenge ourselves technically or conceptually. Key to the success of this project and the pleasure it has given us was the opportunity for discussion and constructive critical evaluation of our work within an informed group.

The Line Up hopes that other artists, designers and makers will be moved to form their own collectives in order to support, enjoy, challenge and encourage each other in this way.

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‘ Fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell; fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death; and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship’s sake ye do them.’

A Dream of John Ball, Ch. 4; first published in The Commonweal 1886/7

Introduction Simone ten Hompel Place, life and work in mind Nowadays we are unlikely to live and work within a single community.

Indeed, if we define a community as a group who share a particular interest, then we are likely to belong to many. Where once a community lived in close proximity within a particular geographical location, this is no longer necessary and we can follow social anthropologist Anthony P. Cohen’s argument that communities are best approached as ‘communities of meaning’. This meaning could be the sense of belonging given through a shared interest in making, which might be of a specific kind or in the choice of material. Such is the case with these eight makers.

In his work on utopian socialism, ‘News from Nowhere’, William Morris lays out his belief that, through socialism, private property can be negated and there need be no separation between life, work and art. This notion of fellowship is still apparent within the community of makers, but it is driven by a number of other factors now.

In this respect, the Latin word ‘communitas’ is helpful in refining our understanding of community: ‘cum’: with/together + ‘munus’: gift. There is a coming together in the sense of a ‘Zweckgemeinschaft’: a community of purpose built on a reciprocal sharing that develops learning and ultimately allows for changes in the collective practice of working and making.

Making jewellery involves specific techniques, skills and three-dimensional articulation, which can be honed within a community, leading to a generous exchange of knowledge and ideas.

This is especially important within the context of a collective exhibition, which poses additional problems of what to do and where to start. A local landmark for The Line Up is the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery with its collection of a rich and exotic mix of paintings, and cultural artefacts from foreign places. The museum has several rooms that focus on a wide range of subjects and a space for curated exhibitions. As a community, the eight participants in this exhibition acted democratically by conducting a lottery to allocate to each a room that would be the starting point for their ideas.

In itself such random matchmaking posed new challenges for each maker, for not only were they working as a community of exhibitors, but the surrounding cultural and historical artefacts became an additional community

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with which their work must interact and from which their investigations should originate. Each room acted, effectively, as the muse for the maker to whom it was allocated, stimulating her work through a dialogic interaction with its unique mix of contents; sparking discovery and debate; posing the question ‘what if?’

Making often starts with a conundrum Jessica Helfand describes this beginning: ‘Drawing, as the primary gesture of making, reopens the doors of the imagination and recasts the process as something completely different. Scary, because you don’t always know where you’re going. But somehow, you know when you get there.

‘There’s time later for logic, for editing, for justifying all that type, for putting up those responsible roadblocks that we all must, on some level, choose to embrace. The studio, at least a little piece of it, is somehow not the place for such duty-bound thinking. Somewhere, somehow, it must be the place for thinking through making.’

The process of making is not merely about aptitude in the kitchen, or any other place, and working from a given recipe, it must be utterly unsettling and scrutinising. After seeing so intently, the maker in her workshop must make sense of the plurality of information she is left with and start the paramount process of selecting and interpreting it all.

In Jane Graves’s paper, ‘Making interest matter — an analysis of practice in psychoanalysis and art’, she highlights the overwhelming importance of interest: ‘Interest is the capacity to be engaged, to succumb to curiosity, to be distracted. It carries an inbuilt risk — a risk of becoming confused — even lost forever. I want to follow this dangerous, but exciting, ‘interest’ in the studio...’

Her paper goes on to emphasise that it is ‘vital for any creative activity’ to become lost within a given time. This notion of being lost within a limited number of hours is another common factor for the members of this group of makers, many of them are mothers, and all of them are trying to balance the different aspects of their lives.

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What is first?

So, here they are, all with a room or even a hall that is their territory, and an assault of impressions. Time is an effective motivating force for nothing focuses the mind more than a deadline speeding towards one. Donald Norman makes the case for what at first seems a counter-intuitive proposition: ‘Act first, do the research later’. He argues that ‘designers should always be engaged in observation, in mentally reviewing and creating artefacts, in sketching, writing, planning and thinking.’

The order does not matter; it is the symbiosis of acting and research that constitutes making.

In the lottery, Susanne Freytag and Jennifer Kidd both drew rooms that focus on indigenous people in specific locations. Kidd was allocated the Sub-Arctic Room, which she had been hoping for. She was able to make an instant connection between her own working environment and the display of practical and ceremonial hand tools, seeing obvious parallels in function.

Starting with the artefacts, studied but never touched, Kidd found herself working with new materials as well as familiar metals to achieve tactile and responsive objects. This process did not come naturally and forced her to develop new patterns of working.

Meanwhile, Freytag had drawn the Plains Indians Room and struggled to connect at first. Returning to the room after researching Plains Indians culture, she was unable to find within it any reference to the reasons behind the grotesque persecution of the American Indians. Anger at this oversight made itself felt. Loose parallels to the world wars of the twentieth century, and other more recent atrocities, came to the fore. Freytag’s challenge was to find a way of conveying this conflict in jewellery which is typically perceived as merely decorative.

A different kind of challenge was presented to Paula Thittichai working with the Sussex Pottery Room. The slowness of the material processes associated with porcelain is in sharp contrast to the immediacies of working in metal, a material that Thittichai understands implicitly. Even testing porcelain, the maker’s way ‘in’ to a material is laborious. For a productive maker like Thittichai who creates two jewellery collections a year, the enforced slowness removed the pure fun of making, which is so abundantly evident in her commercial work.

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Matching the content of a room with the personal seemed to be a common experience. Amy Madge found echoes of her life and relationships in the richly ornate Lower Durbar Hall, a fine example of Victorian Orientalism. With its themes of marriage, geometry and repetition, Madge was able to make connections to specific people in her life, expressing them in representative pieces that are also appealing to any onlooker.

Influenced by the Upper Durbar Hall Maxime Wareham also references marriage and geometries, but here the repetition is manifested in her chosen method of making; she presents a contemporary variation on a ceremonial headdress. Among other things, the piece poses the question of what is going on when one is doing things over and over again. Getting a feel, becoming familiar with the pieces, the motion of sawing and cutting shapes free from a sheet and then composing the shapes into another form creates new relationships. Wareham is reflecting on the everyday, both present and future, in metaphors of the personal and on jewellery making in general.

Surprised by the Museum’s not so static display (the Long Gallery was rearranged soon after early viewings), Wendy-Sarah Pacey was forced to work from memory. Her inspiration was a picture representing scaffolding within the interior of a local church, St Mary-in-the-Castle. Visiting the building, no longer scaffolded, with her memory of the picture that was no longer exhibited led to the creation of a collection which juxtaposes feelings with structure, materials with peace and shape with serenity.

Pacey has translated the remembered scaffolding into structures to encapsulate the body.

Liking the spirit of the man and the story that is dotted around in the John Logie Baird Room, Julie Tucker-Williams experienced the space like a jewellery box and was inspired to experiment, investigate, discover, distill and elaborate. Inspired by Baird’s ingenuity, tenacity and precision, Tucker-Williams found herself incorporating the illustrative and extravagant into this new work, after an experiential and reflective process of discovery.

Abandoning the museum by leaving the confinement of the Wildlife Room, Jo McAllister takes us to the former habitats of the room’s stuffed creatures. Beachcombing, collecting and observing evokes past times when butterflies were less rare and granddads had magnifying glasses. Using her experiences in these landscapes as catalysts for this body of work is, like

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bringing back a feather as a treasure for safekeeping, a metaphor for memory. With their visual symbolism, suggestive functions and indulgence in material pleasures, the pieces are reminiscent of past existences. We are seeing through a looking glass into a dimension beyond and it is left to us to recognise within these objects multiple layers of reality.

Summarising In this exhibition the struggle of the individual has contributed to a collective learning which has enriched not only each maker’s technical abilities in working with materials, but also forced them to confront and reflect upon the content of their work and what it conveys to the viewer. This mode of learning, and ongoing development in practice and in life has challenged each maker in her own particular way.

The onlooker is privileged to view the trials and tribulations involved in becoming an ever more competent practitioner, and to witness how, in overcoming difficulties, the work itself becomes meaningful. By means of critical viewing, the connection is made between audience, each individual, the collective group as a whole, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, and beyond.

There is strength in this tested method of learning. There is also vulnerability in laying these troubles bare, the sharing of which creates new understanding for all kinds of communities: ‘it is for fellowship’s sake ye do them.’

Simone ten Hompel

References and further readings: ––English Dictionary 21st Century Edition, Collins 2000 ––Jessica Helfand ‘The Art of Thinking Through Making’ Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, 2008 ––Jane Graves ‘The Secret Lives of Objects’ ––(A Dream of John Ball, Ch. 4; first published in The Commonweal 1886/7) Smith, M. K. (2001) ‘Community’ in the encyclopedia of informal education, ––Posted by Don Norman ‘Do the Research Later’ 1 Aug 2011 ––William Morris ‘News From Nowhere’ Reeves and Turner, London. 1890

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Jennifer Kidd Sub-Arctic Room Focusing her attention on objects in the Sub-Arctic room which had a functional role in the spiritual and domestic life of the Inuit people, Jennifer Kidd’s response was to think about the relationship of working objects to the body, finding a personal connection to each piece just as she has with her own tools.

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1-2 Gilding metal components in progress for the Rattle Necklace. The pressed component halves have been bound with steel wire ready for soldering. 3-4 Rattle Necklace — patinated gilding metal, dyed faux suede tape, dyed raffia — 170cm long.

5 Rendered drawing of the Cutting Tool Ring — patinated gilding metal and wood. 17cm high, 4.5cm wide, 4.5cm deep.

6 Rendered drawing of the Soul-Catcher Brooch — sterling silver and thread.

23cm long, 4.5cm wide, 1.5cm deep. Photographs 1-2 Jennifer Kidd, 3 Alexander Brattell, 4 Andrew Catlin.

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Jennifer Kidd’s first working object, the Rattle Necklace draws inspiration from the idea of the rattle in the Sub-Arctic room being a shamanic tool made from tiny hooves. When wearing the Rattle Necklace, attention is focused on the movement of the body. Every subtle difference in position is highlighted by the sound created, which builds up through rhythmic movement.

It is this idea of focusing on the sound and movement which references the spiritual trance-like state an Inuit Shaman would enter so that he could cross from this world into the spirit world.

The duality of day and night, this world and the spirit world is a theme explored through all the pieces but especially so in the Soul-Catcher Brooch. Used as a tool to retrieve lost souls from the spirit world the soul-catcher on display in the Sub-Arctic room inspired a long double-ended brooch with thread wrapped around

its centre. The two sides of the brooch represent day and night and the flow of one to the other. The wrapped thread around the centre ties in place the lost soul until it can be safely returned. The brooch corresponds to the Inuits’ deep connection with nature, the harsh environment in which they lived and their relationship with seasonal daylight.

In contrast, the cutting tools which inspired the Cutting Tool Ring represent a way of life that is very much of the physical world. Kidd found a comparative comfort in the well-used handles on the cutting tools, which linked directly with her own sense of comfort gained through the repeptitive use of her jewellery tools. She considered the shapes of the handles and how their forms helped the action of the tool. The Cutting Tool Ring sits between the fingers, the handle gripped comfortingly in the palm of the hand.

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Susanne Freytag Plains Indian Room These pieces pay tribute to the people of the American Plains, whose way of life was destroyed

by European settlers. Each is a symbolic gift with protective qualities: A necklace of silver and bone, resembling chain-mail to protect against injuries.

A bio-hazard symbol, a warning sign against the infected blankets that were given to Native Americans. Moccasins made of deer leather and freshwater pearls, to symbolise protection against the snow and ice on the Trail of Tears.

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1 Necklace, sterling silver, bone, stainless steel H27cm W31cm D0.1cm. 2 Bio-hazard symbol, brass H12cm W12cm D0.1cm. 3 Moccasins, deer leather, fresh water pearls 23cm long. Photographs Andrew Catlin.

The rooms to inspire this work were allocated at random.

Each maker had explored the museum, and in doing so had formed an initial attraction to a particular space — in Freytag’s case she was already imagining the Wildlife Room.

When she was allocated the Plains Indian Room her heart sank; she hadn’t even considered this exhibit.

When she first entered the room, knowing she had to work with it, she began looking at it differently for the first time.

Freytag was intrigued by the tipi and the domestic scene that somehow took her back to her childhood, to a children’s storybook image of the ‘Red Indian’. She began to imagine life as a squaw. At the same time she found the room made her feel uncomfortable.

Something about the lifelessness of the figures repelled her.

But the room still held a strange fascination for her.

Freytag was intrigued by the handmade tools, clothes, toys and moccasins, studying the hand stitching and embroidery.

She tried to follow every stitch and to visualise the maker and the place where they were made.

Freytag read about the American Plains Indians. First, the romantic vision of a people living at one with nature, paying respect to the animals they hunted — the nomadic

existence of the ‘noble savage’.

Then the darker side: tribal wars and raiding parties. The arrival of settlers from Europe, hungry for freedom from oppression, which they then turned on the indigenous population.

The advance of the railroads and how farmers drove the Indians before them, and then turned to military and political attack. This is a history that engulfs the whole of the Native American and Canadian peoples, an entire group of nations. Early coexistence disintegrated as promises were broken, treaties reneged upon, and an active policy of genocide enacted.

Freytag realised that this story was missing completely from the room: the catalogue of massacres of whole tribes, poisonings, deliberate infection with diseases, starvation, sterilization and persecution; guns, artillery, machine guns, biological agents and internment camps. The Trail of Tears — families forced to march through winter from their homelands — was a small part of a 400-year journey that destroyed more than 95% of the native peoples of the North Americas.

In this exhibition Freytag responded to this history of the Native Americans. The objects she made represent protection and warning, acknowledging an absent past and present.

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Paula Thittichai Sussex Pottery Room The slip decorated earthenware in the Sussex Pottery Room is mostly heavy, clumsy and functional. The materials-led exploration into ceramics has rekindled the rebellious nature of Thittichai’s personality.

Exploring the opposite was exciting — a perfect inspiration for light, ephemeral jewellery. Porcelain is the clay to inspire with its opposing properties of fragility and strength, translucence and opacity, all qualities to be taken to extremes.

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1 Enamelling kiln, firing Raku glazed porcelain. 2 Reduction Chamber. 3 Fugacious Petals.

Sterling silver and porcelain slivers approximately 6x3x.2cm each. Sterling silver necklace 41cm long.

4 Ephemeral Dancer. Leather, sterling silver, porcelain with a Raku glaze 7x4x.2cm.

Leather necklace 41cms long.

5 Evanescent Beauty. Leather, sterling silver, porcelain with a Raku glaze. Porcelain sliver 6.5x4.5x.2cm. Leather necklace 41cm long.

Photographs Paddy Boyle.

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The Sussex Pottery Room has thrown Thittichai numerous challenges not least in the medium to be explored; could she still keep the spontaneity she enjoys using metals with the softness of clay to make light fragile jewellery?

Her initial starting point was to make slip cast porcelain but this controlled and formal practice did not hold the excitement Thittichai was seeking, so she worked through other ideas and possibilities.

In depth knowledge of any medium is usually built over years of working practice and she had to find a parallel with a similar substance to porcelain slip in weeks.

Italian meringue and cake mixture was a eureka moment, the texture is similar and a palette knife the connection.

The precise but random movement of the palette knife over the soft slip onto slabs of plaster became a production line. Hundreds have been made only to be discarded as too boring or plain, the most imperfect relished as advantageous to the overall delicacy created for the finished jewellery. Thittichai takes pride in no two pieces of her work being exactly the same whether it is porcelain, silver, gold, or

recycled copper; it is not the medium that is important, but the intrinsic value of tangible creativity.

Holding the fired porcelain slivers up to the light was the moment she realised all the exploration and research was worth the long processes involved. Her usual working practice is to make items of a permanent nature, beating and enamelling silver — in contrast to these ephemeral slivers of delicate porcelain.

Some slivers have been left unglazed to show the sheer translucent beauty of the fired porcelain in its raw state. However, the temptation to use her favourite home mixed Raku glazes was an opportunity not to be missed as her enamelling kiln is a perfect size for this white hot fire experience. To achieve a similarity of lustre only three slivers per day could go through the precise timing involved in her Raku process.

Crafting porcelain jewellery has been a rollercoaster of fun and tears, transience being an alien concept to Thittichai for whom embracing the experimental is a passion revisited, a journey to be remembered.

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Amy Madge Lower Durbar Hall Durbar means ‘council’ or ‘meeting’ in Hindi. In an Indian palace the Durbar was a room used for court and grand assemblies. This hall is a Victorian replica, it is decorated with sacred geometry and natural forms and is now used for marriage ceremonies.

In response, Amy Madge chose nature, union, the wisdom of the ages, and love as the focal points for her work.

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Taking her inspiration from the ethnic ornamentation and pattern that makes up the Durbar Hall, Amy Madge has designed two collections of contemporary jewellery influenced by Victorian mementos of love and matrimony. ’My six-year-old daughter is fascinated by fairytale marriages, princesses and gothic horror. This fascination arises partly from experiencing something that can touch one’s deepest mortal fears of loss and abandonment, whilst also expressing celebration and joy.

The museum and exhibits in the Durbar Hall gave me the same feeling and I aimed to make ‘mysterious and true’ tokens of love, without overt sentimentality, whilst leaving the work open to the interpretation and personal experiences of others.’

The Victorian tokens of love and remembrance, and the memento mori jewellery, so full of symbolic or hidden meaning, were compelling.

Madge chose to use the language of plants together with locks of her daughter’s

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hair to make a highly personalised but universally meaningful collection.

Collecting flowers and plants on nature walks with her family she has ‘immortalised’ these pickings by placing them in dental alginate, pouring in wax and then casting each individual flower or leaf in silver to make these intricate jewellery pieces.

The locks of hair were painstakingly placed behind a glass cabochon and set with a rub over setting.

Heavily granulated Hindu marriage rings displayed in the hall prompted Madge to incorporate the technique of granulation within this work.

Previously Madge has worked closely with each of her clients to specific and individual briefs. Here she has been able to take a new approach, to enjoy the opportunity to develop ideas through drawings, to take the time to research and resource different techniques and materials. She has designed a collection in which all the decisions are her own, and the content is personal.

1 Persinette’s Necklace, oxidised sterling silver, setting with glass cabochon and hair, pendant length 4.5cm x 3.5cm, chain length 46cm. 2 Persinette’s Earrings, oxidised silver and hair, earring length 6.5cm diameter of setting 2cm. 3 Persinette’s Box, oxidised silver and hair, box height 3.5cm, lid diameter 3cm. 4 Daisy Daisy Love Charm Necklace, oxidised sterling silver, length 70cm.

Daisy Daisy Love Charm Ring, oxidised sterling silver, daisy diameter 2cm. Photographs Alexander Brattell.

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Maxime Wareham Upper Durbar Hall For this piece Maxime Wareham responded literally to the accessories room at the museum. The jewellery on display is repetitive and simple. The forms are coins, bones and circular links.

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1 Enamelling in studio.

2-4 Ceremonial headress — enamelled silver disks starting from 4cm across to 1.3cm across. The drop from the top of the cap to the end of the piece is approximately 1.8m.

Vitreous enamel, silver and leather for the cap.

Photographs 1 Abigail Riddihough. 2,4 Andrew Catlin. 3 Alexander Brattell.

Maxime Wareham chose circles because they have a universal, symbolic meaning.

The materials she used are silver, enamel and leather (for the headdress). The enamel is translucent because it has a lustrous appearance and allows the silver to shine through.

Silver was used instead of copper, not only because of its aesthetic quality but also because even though the jewellery on display in the museum is often of a more base material, it would have been precious to the maker/ wearer. Wareham also found that the translucent enamels were very flat when fired on copper as opposed to silver.

The piece has modern and traditional aspects to it. The overall effect is quite modern, but the elements, taken separately, are traditional. This idea of tradition is strengthened by roughly sifting the enamel onto fluxed metal and by cutting and beating each individual disk by hand.

There were many obstacles to overcome whilst making this piece including problems with firestain (the copper coming to the surface of the silver and leaving dark stains on the silver), which cannot be present when using translucent enamels, and with the soldered links. The solder would weaken whilst in the kiln and the whole

making process would have to start again. Wareham did not give enough consideration, whilst designing the headdress, as to how lengthy the making process would become.

There were also issues with how to hang the piece because of its weight and the fact that it would twist if not held against anything. The enamelled pieces looked better with something behind to highlight the colour and so a stand was made to display the piece instead of the initial idea of suspending it from the ceiling.

The headdress is not designed to be worn comfortably (although it can be worn), but to be striking and extreme. It has overtones of a wedding veil or ceremonial headdress, and the enamelled disks bring to mind pebbles in a stream or a snake’s spine.

Wareham intended that the piece should feel organic, as if it had been pulled from the ground.

If the piece were to be made again, certain processes might be changed and the design altered slightly to eliminate some of these problems; however, Wareham is thrilled with the end result and the fact that the whole process has pulled her back into the rich world of designing and making jewellery.

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Wendy-Sarah Pacey The Long Gallery The starting point for this body of work is a large painting by Gus Cummins of St Mary-in-the-Castle in Hastings undergoing renovation work, housed in the Long Gallery. The interior of the church is shown, covered with a chaotic network of scaffolding.

Wendy-Sarah Pacey was drawn to this image, as she has always been interested in structural forms. Several visits were made to St Mary’s itself, and it is the actual site that has informed this work. These pieces are entirely different to her usual work, which is made from brightly coloured acrylic.

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St Mary-in-the-Castle is an open circular space with clean, crisp lines and a sense of airiness, full of warmth and light. Standing in the empty, high-domed central area, one might expect to feel exposed and vulnerable, but the feeling is one of being cocooned or encapsulated — there is a deep sense of connection between yourself and the space within — one almost feels like a part of the building. Churches are traditional places of protection, and this feeling is strongly conveyed here through the main construction and details of the architecture, which delineates the space around you, enveloping you, and defining your place within it.

This atmosphere is communicated through a collection of jewellery for personal ritual use in this particular space. There is a cyclical sympathy here between the jewellery, the owner and the church itself — the pieces belong as much to the building as to the wearer.

The prayer clamps are two separate structures made mainly from stainless steel wire — when worn, they fully exploit the tension qualities of the

material as they press the hands together, creating a little protective world for prayer.

There is symbolism here too — the three rings of the prayer cradle (representing the holy trinity) are held together with gilded tubular metal junctions in the form of a cross, referencing traditional ecclesiastical artefacts as well as the scaffolding joints in the original image. The supplication set contains a golden cross at the neck and gold wedding rings, possibly the most universally worn and understood pieces of jewellery, giving these items simplicity and accessibility.

These are not showy, visual impact pieces — they are quiet, understated and elegant. The final result is a feeling of serenity and peacefulness, of yielding rather than restriction. The pieces are made to shield, encase, and assist, not to cage, imprison or hinder. They are about physical and spiritual connection, about personal and architectural space and the human feelings and actions created when these elements come together as a harmonious whole.

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1 Set of Prayer Clamps.

Stainless steel wire, gilded brass. H12cm, W23cm, D14cm (when worn). 2 Central dome. 3 Balcony box pews.

4-6 Prayer Cradle — back, oblique and front view.

Stainless steel wire, gilded brass. H40 cm, W24cm, D32cm. 7 Supplication Set. Neckpiece — stainless steel wire, gilded brass. H49cm, W11cm, D57cm. Handpieces — stainless steel wire, gold.

H26cm, W2cm, D26cm.

Photographs 1,4-7 Andrew Catlin. 2-3 Alexander Brattell.

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Julie Tucker-Williams John Logie Baird Room In the exciting and dynamic age of the 1920s, where design was heavily influenced by constant advances in technology, John Logie Baird, along with others was attempting to transmit television pictures. The simplicity and clean lines of the Art Deco style proved a strong cohesive force on Julie Tucker-Wiliams’s designs, finally linking the essential design elements, whilst maintaining the sense of movement she wanted to create.

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1 Finished spinning ball pendant before being attached to beads on working sketches for pendants. Sterling silver, amethyst, smokey quartz, rock crystal and haematite faceted beads.

2 Initial sketches, tassel and disc components. Sterling silver, green jasper, black onyx and rock crystal. 3 Spinning ball pendant with orbiting wires. Sterling silver, rock crystal, amethyst, smokey quartz and haematite faceted beads. Long smokey quartz drop. 15cm long x 3cm wide.

4 Spinning disc ring.

Oxidized sterling silver, three diamonds and yellow sapphire. 2cms diameter x 3cm high. 5 Spinning stone ring. Sterling silver. Faceted smokey quartz and rock crystal beads on background of initial sketches. 3cm wide x 6cm high. 6 Spinning stones pendant. Sterling silver, bullet amethyst, smokey quartz, rock crystal and amethyst faceted beads. Long smokey quartz drop. 7 John Logie Baird.

Exploded projector Hastings museum. Photographs Claire Richardson.

Discovering the strange journeys, both geographically and mentally, of John Logie Baird has been an amusing and intriguing consequence of this project for TuckerWilliams. A seller of boot polish and manufacturer of industrial soap, Logie Baird travelled from his native Scotland to Hastings via Trinidad. The bizarre and quirky life of the inventor of television, who once sold mango chutney and guava jelly to a sausage maker for fifteen pounds, equipped him well for his time living in Hastings!

His creative and technological processes seemed at times clumsy.

Attempts to create diamonds from coal dust resulted not only in fusing the entire factory, but also the loss of his job.

Experiments with hat boxes and knitting needles led to more success and TuckerWilliams has been struck by his relentlessly inventive spirit and inquiring mind.

Eventually he produced the Televisor, available for twenty-nine guineas in 1930; this huge metal monstrosity seemed incongruously large for the tiny picture it produced. It is this idea of extremes of scale that Tucker-Williams has explored in her initial sketches.

Mindful of the projector Baird developed (seen in the gallery in an exploded form), Tucker-Williams started working on the idea of spinning discs with holes in and the number of vertical lines used to create the pictures, as an integral part of her designs.

As her work usually explores experimental textures, making marks and fluid loose shapes, tackling the Art Deco style is a huge contrast, requiring Tucker-Williams to develop new skills and challenging her usual approach to working with metal.

The choice of clear crystals and faceted beads reflect the clean lines of the new technological advancements of this era. Through trial and error she has developed spinning elements for the component parts which join together to form the final pieces.

Tucker-Williams has chosen to exhibit her final pieces together with early drawings to give an insight into the developmental process she employs. By showing her journey from seemingly unrelated abstract ideas and design influences, through to the final decisions, she hopes this will add to the viewer’s enjoyment of the exhibition.

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Jo McAllister Wildlife Room Having drawn the Wildlife Room, Jo McAllister found her lot to be dark, dusty and dead. As the only life in the room, wild or otherwise, the only thing of which she was certain was that she would not reference taxidermy. Information in the room about the local landscapes — that its long-dead residents had once inhabited — proved exciting for it gave licence to explore.

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1 Binoculars. Fine silver 999, plastic optics, vintage leather strap with steel fixings. H10cm W12.7cm D4.2cm. 2 Collector’s Brooch, with stick. Fine silver 999, steel. H2.1cm W3.2cm D2.3cm. Catapult Bangle. Fine silver 999, wool felt, elastic, thread. H3.9cm W6.5cm D2.3cm. 3 Lunacy Loupe on model. 4 Lunacy Loupe. Fine silver 999, wool felt, 10cm glass lens, grosgrain ribbon.

H17.5cm W12.3cm D5.3cm 5 Feather Collector’s Box pendant. Fine silver 999, wool felt, jay’s hackle feathers, grosgrain ribbon. H9.3cm W5.9cm D2.1cm. Soldered construction, removable lid. 6 Collector’s Ring No.4.

Fine silver 999. H6.5cm W5.8cm D2.3cm. Soldered construction, removable lid.

7 Observer’s Ring No.2. Fine silver 999, vintage camera lens. H5.1cm W2.7cm D2.7cm.

Soldered construction, removable lid. 8 Collector’s Ring No.3. Fine silver 999.

H6.1cm W3.1cm D1.8cm.

Soldered construction, removable lid. 9 Observer’s Ring No.1. Fine silver 999, vintage camera lens. H4.2cm W2.6cm D2.9cm. Soldered construction, removable lid.

Photographs 1-2, 4-8 Alexander Brattell. 3 Andrew Catlin.

Walking, taking photographs, making notes, and immersing herself in the sense of places such as Old Roar Gill, Saxon wetlands, heath, woodland, Alexandra Park, cliffs and shores in and around Hastings, McAllister was sometimes accompanied by her young son and her relationship to these landscapes necessarily changed.

Spaces for quiet observation and contemplation became, in his presence, the hunting ground for conkers, fairy rings and bugs, and the scene of catapult and sword fights.

A theme emerged: jewellery and objects for observation, collection and enjoyment.

Many of these wearable tools perform metaphysical functions. A butterfly net removed from its cane becomes a diaphanous hooded collar.

The Collector’s Brooch provides a holster for the perfect stick, ready to combine with the elastic Catapult Bangle.

There are contrasting extravagances of scale.

Tiny jay’s hackle feathers are displayed and contained in the small Feather Collector’s Box pendant with its heavy split lid and even heavier base.

Weighty vintage camera lenses set in place of gemstones become lids for simply constructed Observer’s Rings.

Find your insect and put it inside for a closer look.

The Binoculars are constructed using only cold connections, as one would make a paper model without the use of glue: finger folding the metal, crimping and pinching to join, using slots and tabs to secure the plastic optics. The worn leather strap is from her grandfather’s binoculars.

Lunacy Loupe is an over scale pendant suspended on grosgrain ribbon with its allusions to blazers and straw boaters. The 10cm lens magnifies the luminous silver surface beneath, swivelling on a large hinge of hollow construction.

McAllister’s signature treatment of fine silver continues — using Stone Age tools percussively as hammer and anvil to create textures reminiscent of both earthly and lunar landscapes. She uses woollen felt, grosgrain ribbon, sticks, elastic and feathers in contrast to the opulent minimalism of her metal. Her recent forays into lush East Sussex nature reserves and parklands bring a fresh, narrative richness, imbuing her work with a sense of times past as well as present.

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Jennifer Kidd

Susanne Freytag

Biography Born in Hastings and raised in Bexhill, Jennifer Kidd’s curiosity for jewellery making was sparked by her Foundation Art and Design tutor at Hastings College of Arts and Technology. She graduated from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in 2005 with a first class honours degree in Silversmithing, Goldsmithing and Jewellery; she now teaches there as a sessional lecturer. Following her degree she went on to complete a residential year with the Bishopsland Educational Trust (2005-2006) where she developed her work and set up as a practicing jeweller and silversmith.

Working from her London studio at Cockpit Arts Deptford, Jennifer exhibits her work nationally and has been represented at Collect in 2007 and also exhibits at Goldsmiths’ Fair.

Biography Susanne Freytag trained as a goldsmith in Dusseldorf, but because she could not sit still for very long she decided to start a band with two friends. She travelled around the world to sing, speak and perform, discovering many new ideas and meeting lots of new and inspiring people. With more practice she learned to sit still for longer and returned to making jewellery. She worked in Cologne with Barbara Friedlaender in the 90s and then moved to London and later to Hastings where she continues designing jewellery.

2010 Selected as a finalist — Museum Sheffield National Metalwork Design Award 2010.

2007 Two week residency with the Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland.

Involving teaching workshops, gallery demonstrations and exhibition of work.

2005 Commissioned by the Society of Women Writers and Journalists to design and make a trophy bowl given as an award to ‘The Most Outstanding Woman Journalist of the Year 2005.

Strong, simple and bold shapes form the basis of all Kidd’s designs; she is inspired by the limitless ways in which these shapes can be combined, repeating and clustering to form fluid and rhythmic jewellery. Her silver objects are sculptural, tactile and functional. She looks for balance in the design as well as surface finishes that reflect the softness of the shapes. mail@jenniferkidd.com www.jenniferkidd.com

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2003 Galleria de Arte Margetson, Nerja, Malaga, Spain.

2001 Hollis Studio, Battle.

1992 — 2001 Exhibitions in London and Hastings.

1988 — 1996 Exhibitions in Dusseldorf, Cologne and Bremen, Germany.

Freytag designs rings, necklaces and other jewellery from silver, gold or platinum, working with precious stones or time-smoothed pebbles she finds in riverbeds or on the beach. She experiments with form and technique to combine traditional craft with more experimental methods. susannefreytag@googlemail.com www.susannefreytag.com

Amy Madge

Maxime Wareham

Biography Amy Madge, born in Greenwich, took her art and design foundation in Newcastle upon Tyne; she went on to study jewellery HND at Plymouth College of Art, graduating in 1991. She continued to develop her skills in the trade in London and worked for a range of designers. In the late 1990s she co-founded @Work; a contemporary jewellery gallery in Brick Lane, East London that she ran for six years. She left to work independently and now lives and works in Hastings — an ancient fishing town and faded Victorian seaside resort where she is continually inspired by the diverse mix of cultures and nature that surround her.

Biography Since changing her career from theatre to jewellery in 2002 Maxime Wareham has worked primarily with enamel and silver.

She began developing her approach on her HND course at the Sir John Cass Art Department of the London Metropolitan University where she was awarded the Goldsmiths’ Prize for enamelling.

She completed her MA at the Sir John Cass, culminating in an exhibition for which she designed a series of brooches. During her MA and after Wareham worked as an outworker for London jewellers Wright and Teague. This coupled with the commercial sense she gained at her successful bi-annual Cockpit Arts Open Studio events, led her to design jewellery more suited to retail which is sold in various boutiques.

2010 — present Joined The Line Up. 2010 — 2011 Participated in Hastings Hot Houses.

2000 — 2004 Teaching jewellery at Heba, Bengali women’s refuge, London, Camberwell College of Art. 1996 — present Commissions for L-13, The Aquarium Galleries, James Cauty, U2 tours, Bono, Dinos Chapman, Jamie Reid, Billy Childish.

1998 — 2004 Co-founded and managed @Work Contemporary Jewellery Gallery, Brick Lane, London.

As well as promoting other designers’ work, Madge has worked on many commissions, working closely with clients and other creatives. She now focuses on her own collections and Rooms for Ideas presents for the first time, a body of work that has been developed in response to the conceptual requirements of an exhibition remit. amy@amymadge.co.uk www.amymadge.co.uk

2009 — present Joined The Line Up. 2006 — 2008 Wright and Teague outworker.

2004 — 2006 Studio, Cockpit Arts Deptford London.

2004 — 2006 MA By Projects, Jewellery Design, The Sir John Cass Art Department, London Metropolitan University.

2002 — 2003 HND — Jewellery Design and Making, The Sir John Cass Art Department, London Metropolitan University.

1992 — 1995 BA (Hons) Theatre Communication Arts and Media, Huddersfield University.

Wareham’s love of jewellery was inspired by family friend Anne Hooton, a wonderful woman and flamboyant enamelist. Initially making jewellery in her studio in Cockpit Arts, Deptford, London.

She later moved to Hastings with her musician husband and from 2008 took a break from her bench to have two children. The Rooms for ideas exhibition is her first project since returning from maternity leave. She is working on a new boutique collection and takes commissions. maximevwareham@gmail.com www.maximewareham.com

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Paula Thittichai

Wendy-Sarah Pacey

Biography Paula Thittichai left school at sixteen and spent the first five years of her working life as a visual merchandiser for Jaeger which gave her an unexpected insight into colour and form. She designed her first piece of jewellery at eighteen but it was not until her early twenties that she formed a business manufacturing, exhibiting, wholesaling and retailing her own costume jewellery designs.

A few years were spent away from designing jewellery commercially doing an HND Craft course at Hastings College which not only re-inspired her desire to create jewellery but also gave her time to learn about ceramics and glazes which has proved invaluable for this exhibition.

Biography Wendy-Sarah Pacey has been a jeweller professionally for thirteen years. She comes from a family of people who make things.

Her father is a carpenter, her mother knits and crochets, her grandfather was a metalworker, her grandmother an embroiderer.

She made her first piece of jewellery, a present for her aunt, at the age of five, using the pliers from her father’s toolbag which she stole from the cupboard under the stairs without his knowing. To save her from a life of crime, her father took her to the local tool shop to buy her first hammer. She spent the rest of her formative years in the garden shed, and is now a law-abiding craftsperson.

2010 The opening of her jewellery shop ‘Atelier Ava’ in Hastings.

1992 Supplied beach glass jewellery for adverts in Thailand.

1989 Exhibiting in most cities in Spain.

1982 Miti Ltd. Costume jewellery business. Director/Designer.

Thittichai has been handcrafting jewellery for thirty years and as a designer/maker produces two collections of new designs each year specialising in silver with her own unique vitreous enamel finish and recycled copper also with enamels. ‘A strong and resolute belief in your ability is all you need to spend a wonderful life creating beautiful things.’ enamels@paulathittichai.com www.paulathittichai.com

2009 ‘Solo Showcase’ The Scottish Gallery.

2008 Gold Award for Export awarded by UKTI @ Origin.

2007 Gold Award for Gallery Jewellery awarded by Goldsmiths Craft and Design Council.

2004 ‘Collect’ Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

2003 National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, permanent collection.

2002 Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art, permanent collection.

1998 BA(Hons) in Designed Metalwork and Jewellery, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

The main motivation of Pacey’s usual work is to bring a sense of preciousness to jewellery made with non-precious materials.

She uses coloured acrylics and foils to create luminosity, iridescence and delicate patterns. She continually explores colour, form and pattern, taking inspiration from 1950s architecture, textiles and homewares. wendy-s-pacey@freeuk.com www.wendysarahpacey.com

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Julie Tucker-Williams

Jo McAllister

Biography During a combined BA hons humanities degree Julie TuckerWilliams asked a local jeweller to make a pair of earrings for her 21st birthday. She enjoyed watching her design being made but never thought just over a year later she would be working as an apprentice to the same jeweller. She trained with and worked for the highly regarded Michael Bolton for many years during the 80s and 90s and was involved in the design process, making and selling.

Biography Jo McAllister was given her first camera at the age of seven and bought her first copy of Vogue at fourteen. She moved to London aged twenty and spent a couple of years in the fashion industry, before starting work on a national broadsheet newspaper in 1987, working in picture editing and research until 2005.

Teaching art and jewellery became a large part of her life in the 90s along with making her own small collection of pieces that sold in the Easton rooms in Rye. Since moving to Hastings over 20 years ago she has had two children. Her husband Russell Field, is a musician. She regularly exhibits locally, in Rye and Cranbrook and sells at the Wealden Times fair twice a year.

1990 — present Easton rooms, Rye. 2006 — 2007 Todds gallery, Hastings.

2004 — 2006 Stratton Gallery, Hastings.

1991 — 2010 Cranbrook art show.

1991 — 1994 Broughton gallery, Scotland.

Tucker-Williams is passionate about producing individually created high quality jewellery in precious metals, fresh water pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, and works closely with her clients to provide truly personal pieces.

Julietuckerwilliams@gmail.com www.julietuckerwilliams.co.uk

Having always enjoyed making things, McAllister took an evening class in jewellery in 1988, and thereafter taught herself, making jewellery inspired by her travels. In 1998 she fulfilled an ambition to go to art college, completing Honours and Masters degrees, at The Sir John Cass College of Art. Galleries Electrum, London, W1. Galerie TAL 20, Munich, Germany.

2001 — present McAllister has exhibited widely, in England, Europe and the US. She talked about her work at Escola Massana, Centre D’Art i Disseny, Barcelona.

2004 Crafts Council Development Award.

2003 MA, Silversmithing, Jewellery & Allied Crafts, London Metropolitan University.

2001 Selected for the International Graduation Show, Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen.

McAllister first experimented with Stone Age tools as hammer and anvil in 1999. This percussive treatment of precious metals with stones from beaches or mountains remains central to her work. Simple forms evoke desert light and landscapes. Glinting edges compliment matt surfaces. Marks of making are important, enhancing and encouraging each unique piece to further develop its personal patina of possession. info@jomcallister.com www.jomcallister.com

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Acknowledgments

The Line Up would like to thank the following people: Simone ten Hompel; photographers Paddy Boyle, Alexander Brattell, Andrew Catlin and Claire Richardson; Clare Playne, Simon Hack and Oliver Meikle at Playne Design; Gill Davies; Catherine Harvey and Susan Ward at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.

Thanks also to all those friends and family whose practical help and support has made this project possible, particularly Grant and Violet Braithwaite, Paschal Brattell, Priya Cole, Kerry Evans, Alex and Felix, Barbara Friedlaender, Marina Graham, Chloe Henley-Kempken, Jakub Neubauer, Jackie Summerfield and Pete Wareham.

Simone ten Hompel wishes to thank Caroline Morpeth, Alexander Brattell and Jo McAllister.

Finally, The Line Up would like to wholeheartedly thank Jo McAllister, our producer, for the incredible amount of time and effort she has given to make this project a success. www.thejewellerylineup.com

This publication was made possible and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

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ISBN: 978-0-9569773-1-1