Earth cast silver choker with sapphire. Front view
Earth cast silver choker with Sapphire. Back view
The main principle with this piece to see the work as a collaboration with the material. To while casting allow the metal to flow over the earth as it wants, influenced by gravity, choosing its own path. Then to take these organic shapes and form a piece around a part of the body that instinctively feels the right place.
This way of working is an unusual way of approaching jewellery making because in the main it requires no measurements, it by definition isn’t an exact science, it’s about working with the organic flow of the metal rather than trying to be in total control of it.
making the choker
conceptually my work this year has been a lot about rebelling and rejecting the unmoving, uncompromising nature of modern humanity. Our rigidity has impacted the natural world enormously. Our inability to be led by her and our arrogance to assume we know better. We have tipped the perfectly balanced equilibrium of nature and are paying the price .
Some of these apparently human traits of desire for authority are mirrored in the precision of the jewellery industry where jewellers are wholly in control of the material, manipulating metal to achieve a perfect finish, knowing exactly how many mm and grams a piece will be. I actively enjoy not doing this, working with the material in a freer way .
although this process style aims to be freeing, it is not without consideration. at every stage and step I think carefully about how to proceed taking cues from the metal’s behaviour.
photoshopped images exploring scale. with pewter samples