Interdisciplinary. Community. Advocacy. Humor.
Thank you for viewing this on-line exhibition
This exhibition is a showcase for narrative work.
I would like to personally thank all the makers who took the time to submit work for this on-line exhibition.
Image Left: Duality
Maker: Younha Jung
Image Credit: Kathleen Browne
Members: 25
Latest Activity: Jun 2, 2016
Lieta Marziali
THREE MOURNING BROOCHES (2013)
“Lost”, “Gone Before” and “Beach Road”: three Norfolk mourning brooches, for all that we lose to the sea.
LOST – 6.1 X 3.9 X 1.1 CM
GONE BEFORE – 7.2 X 3.1 X 1.1 CM
BEACH ROAD – 8.9 X 4.7 X 1.8 CM
Image Credit: Andi Sapey
Elena Ristovska
Title: Just imagine, you are on the Moon with love of your life
925 Silver with Brass Detail
H: 70mm W: 60mm D: 4mm
Stereotypes, archetypes, perception of the world and nature and all the “opportunity’s” that one society are giving us are considered in this work. I chose naive characters and stories to retell my idea Are we in control of our own decisions?
Image Credit: Elena Ristovska
Eleanore Macnish
Title: I COULD WATCH YOU WALK AWAY ALL DAY
2005
Sterling, antique collar button, Victorian buckle, mica, bronze squirrel, onyx, furniture hinge, William Morris print, steel button, almond locket set in silver.
3" wide x 5" long
One day I was exiting a doorway and a very attractive man said "I could watch you walk away all day". I thought "Now THAT is a good line!" I went home and made this piece over the next few days and thought about the importance of remembering compliments and good things about yourself - like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter - when you are feeling blue, it's good to have a little mental cache of good things about yourself you can access. The back is inscribed with a "cache of good things" and the locket contains a slip of paper that says "I could watch you walk away all day".
Image Credit: Margot Geist
Patrica Alvarez
Title: TIME OF TENDERNESS- necklace (2013)
silver- agate- copper - ceramic paints
long: 40cm
"In times of violence, I have times of tenderness for you" . Dedicated to my grandchilden.
Image credit: Pablo Mehanna
Barbara Magana Perez
2011
4.5 x 2.5 x 1.0 cm
Sterling silver; 3D printed, lost wax cast, hand fabricated, soldered, assembled.
The Flös collection is a love song to all those inanimate objects hiding out in every home’s nooks and crannies – which come alive when they cross paths with flowers. They become a medium to extend the life of all those tokens of love and affection exchanged on birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. Thus, flowers go from ephemeral to everlasting companions. Flowers are supposed to be unique, while containers are usually mass produced. With this in mind, these pieces are produced in small series where each flower is individually put together, while their containers come from a miniature version of their real life manufacturing process.
Image Credit: Fernando Rubio Garcidueñas
Julie Allison
Title: Lets go fly a kite
2014
Drift wood, silver, steel and lazer transfer.
A favourite childhood memory of flying a kite that I'm sure most people have. The excitement of seeing it soar into the air for the first time, the noise of it flapping in the warm summer breeze. The spectacular scene of lots of kites in the air flying free like giant colourful birds.
photo credit - Julie Allison edited by Ejike Wosu
www.julieallison.co.uk
Alison Louise Bailey
Title: Soothing Cactus
Year: 2014
Materials: brass, hand-dyed fabric, embroidery thread
Dimensions: 4”x11”x3”
Soothing Cactus is a piece that I made after visiting a botanical garden out west. Being from the Midwest I was very intrigued by cacti. I found their shapes, colors, and patterns to be very inspiring. The allure of the cactus for me was that it was so enticing yet so untouchable, this neckpiece is my way of adapting something I found visually peaceful and calming into something that could be tactilely comforting as well.
Image credit: Alison Bailey
Emma Swailes
The Memory Vessel
2012 The Memory Vessel is a pebble like orb that acts as a time capsule to preserve your treasured memories. It is sold empty with a pattern within so the vessel is not in a hurry to be filled. After the memory is placed, simply put the rubber ring into the grove on the lid and push the vessel together. The pattern helps lock the vessel, and the magnifying glass enhances details of the memory. Make sure it is the right memory as the vessel is designed to stay locked. Getting back in could damage the vessel. It can be made in copper, silver plated copper and silver and comes in a presentation box with instructions in the lid. This piece is inspired by the act of reminiscing.
Image Credit: Sheffield Hallam University
Nicholas Palmer
Title: A silver brooch for Oscar Wilde.
2007, 46x93x17mm
Cast, press-formed and fabricated sterling silver; oxidized. Fitted with a double stainless steel pin.
This 'theoretical' commission was inspired by research and reflection on the life and character of Oscar Wilde. Wilde exhibited a duality of nature: on the one hand an aesthete, idealistic, promoting the virtues of natural and artistic beauty, and on the other obsessive; driven by darker passions, self-destructive and indulgent. I attempted to create a metaphor that illustrated his internal struggle, echoing the sad inevitability of his eventual undoing.
Image Credit: Ben West.
Cecilie Hveding
Title : BLUE MOUNTAIN RANGE
Pendant 2014.
Materials : Silver, gold, gold granulation, gold-cloisonnet-enamel.
Size: about 2,5x7cm.
Inspired by the Norwegian mountains, in chape and colours. The golden lines are tracs from animals or people. The granulation could be a small town on the edge of the mountain.
Image Credit: Cecilie Hveding.
Toril Bonsaksen
Title: Thinking about the flyway II
organic material, oxidised copper, ruby, 2013
I collect nature’s treasures. Seedpods, corals, twigs and stones. I choose those who contain a certain personality, for example a shape that resembles an animal or insect. The association is enhanced by adding precious stones or other elements. This gives further shape and life to the story of the creature.
I give the organic treasures a coating of copper, silver by using the technique of electroforming: the adding of a layer of metal through galvanization. This transformation process and the fragility of the organic material co-create an expression of nature's dissolved structures, frozen in time.
The birds in this series are made from radish-seedpods. I have used phenomena in bird migration to illustrate stories about identity, belonging and inner turmoil.
Manybirds migrate long distances along a Flyway. The most commond pattern involves flying north in the spring and returning in the autumn to warmer regions in the south.
In the period before migration, many birds display higher activity or Zugunruhe (German: migratory restlessness) as well as physiological changes such as increased fat deposition. The occurence of Zugunruhe can be seen in cage rises birds.
Vagrancy: Migrating birds can lose their way and appear outside their normal ranges. Reverse migration where the genetic programming of young birds fails to work properly, can lead to great rarities turning up as vagrants thousand of kilometers out of range.
Image Credit: Toril Bonsaksen
Rebecca E Smith
Title:"Getting my Wings"
2014
brooch enamelled copper
My jewellery is inspired by over 300 love letters that my Granddad sent to my grandmother during WWII while he was away training with the RAF in Canada, learning to fly a Spitfire plane. He sent a letter almost every few days from 1943-1946. Using his letters as inspiration I wanted to tell their love story as well as reviving the art of letter writing and to highlight how important it is to write.
"Getting my Wings" brooch The photograph is my granddad getting his RAF wings in Canada and the oval piece of acrylic at the bottom left hand side was what was writing on the back of the photograph, the date and place he received his wings. "The Great Moment, Brandon, Monitoba, 5th of October 1944".
Image Credit: Rebecca E Smith
Title: LET´S GO "PACO". 2013
Pendant/brooch silver 930 with orange silicone.
Measures: 83 x 45 x 40 mm
Faith grows everywhere.The new Pope brings fresh air, soft revolution.
Image Credit: Jorge Rojas
Title : The Pinnacle (2014)
Copper, sterling silver, fine silver, freshwater pearls
Dimensions: L 87.3 mm x W 12.6 mm x D 10.9 mm
A free climber tests his limits with every ascent up a rock face. Without an advanced plan for his route, the climber knows a missed step brings the possibility of injury or even death. Still, he is willing to risk absolutely everything, his strength, his will, even his life, for the chance to stand on the summit with his arms stretched up to the sky in victory.
Image Credit: Dianne Karg Baron
Title of work: Logbook
Year made: 2013
Cool Ice porcelain, steel wire, silver, ceramic pencil, glaze.
Measurements: 400 cm long (squares: 1, 5x1, 5cm)
This piece was created during my period of two months as artist in residence in the “School of Visual and Performing Arts” in Tasmania, Australia.
The inspiration of this piece was to create small squares of porcelain as if they were small canvas with the idea of to make a “wearable logbook” that was reflecting my sensations and experiences in Tasmania.
Image credit: Eduardo Armada
Karen Smith
Mary Frisbee Johnson
Title: What's Buzzin' Cuzzin
2013
Brooch: Sterling silver, vintage lithographed tin, copper.
H. 1.5" x W. 3.38" x .38"
My cartouche brooches are made from sterling silver and copper combined with found vintage lithographed tin from advertising products and toys. In each, two relating images are juxtaposed in diptych format to tell a small story. Drawn surface ornamentation done in Prismacolor on gesso enhances the framed imagery, the layers of metal and tin sandwiched together with tiny bolts.
Image Credit: Mark McIlwain
Flora Sekanova
Title: "Don't let the cat get you"
2014 necklace
material: wild birds feathers, silver
Each material has its story which is connected with its history. And then there is my story and your story. Each can be very different and still equal. And this is what is so beautiful about it.
Image credit: Kvetoslava Flora Sekanova
www.kvetoslava-flora-sekanova.weebly.com
Anastasia Young
Title: Trophy Wife Trophy
Brooch.
2012.
Dimensions: 7x 4 x 3 cm
Materials: Sterling and fine silver, 18 ct yellow gold, diamond, moonstone, epoxy resin, buffalo horn.
This piece subverts the traditional jewellery form of the grouse foot brooch, using the Bachelor Machine construct as a template for the narrative elements. Particular aspects of Duchamp's 'The Large Glass' ascribe meaning to the figurative elements of the brooch - the hand represents the Bride, the spider is the Bachelor and the execution device is formed by the metal parts of the brooch itself. The inscription on the reverse of the moonstone setting "Obt 12" can be read as either 1912 (referencing Duchamp's painting 'The Bride'), or 2012 when the piece was made.
Image Credit: Anastasia Young
Kim Nogueira
title: I search for a memory so ancient we have lost the words for it
year made: 2014
materials: silver, bronze, brass
measurements: focal pendant is 5.5 x 3.6 x 1.4 cm
text about the narrative: You must look closely to see this caveman's
mouth moving quietly when you turn the crank; what is he saying to
you? Were there connections back then to the natural world that we
have since lost to modern civilization? Can we find them again? Do
you think we need to?
Image Credit Kim Nogueira
Amanda Denison
VIRTUES necklace 2013
Bone and oxidized silver.
Length approx. 1050 - 1240 (can be arranged to different lengths)
Virtues necklace is inspired by a photograph of Patience Henderson-Drew who after being widowed worked as a seamstress and lady’s maid; a role that she hated and resented in spite of her seemingly demure and timid nature.
Virtues (girls names) are ‘needle pricked’ into bone gaming chips but hidden dark within are the two vices of vengeance and iniquity. The ‘Virtues’ can be rearranged according to the whims of the wearer so the dark sides of ones personality can be revealed or remain hidden below the surface.
Image Credit: Amanda Denison
Pallvi Gandhi
Title: Under a Night Sky
Sterling silver with C.Z
I was inspired by a couple of lines from Surinder Singh Johar’s book, ‘Guru Tegh Bahadur: A Biography’. The book is about the ninth guru of the Sikhs, Guru Tegh Bahadur, who gave his life for his beliefs.
“The Martyr laid down his life in order to prove the truth he held dear. He was neither afraid of pain nor torture.”
The brooch, ‘Under the night sky’, shows a simplified façade of the Sis Ganj Gurudwara, in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, where the Guru was beheaded under a Banyan tree (back of piece). In the front, is a bird-a lone believer, at the entrance of the gurudwara, aglow with the knowledge of his Guru’s courage and sacrifice, giving him the strength to steadfastly believe in and pursue, what he holds dear.
Image Credit: Pankaj Mishra
Vicki Mason
Title: Standard Roses in a Row (detail of installation house)
Year: 2013
Dimensions – Largest brooch – 7.0 x 4.5 x 1.3cm
Materials: Powder coated brass & 925 silver, cotton
Roses are so loved, so iconic, so ubiquitous and often planted in rows in front gardens around my neighbourhood. Perhaps it’s the orderly, formal, upright, almost human aspect that might be what is so attractive to those that love roses in this form – who knows? They are so olde worlde, nostalgic, a plant of another age/place, a cultural tradition that won’t die, a reminder of a parent or a grandparents garden perhaps?
Image Credit: Andrew Barcham
Younha Jung
title of work: Duality 38
year made:2013
Rubber, Nickel Silver, Pin, Pearl, Bolt/Nut
When I passed 1year in staying US, at that time the atmosphere and my relationships changed totally, because I had lots of culture shock and meet variey of people. I use that change of feeling in my work and not only my personal emotions and the subconscious within my relationships with people, I try to represent all this in my visual work.
Image Credit: Kathleen Browne
Sylvanie Frouin
Title of work : endless train ring
Year made. 2013
sterling silver ring
This ring is one of my first designs. It represents a train going out of a tunnel on a bridge. I like to create surprise when people look at my jewelley and this ring procoke the most reactions when people see it for the 1st time.
Image credit: sylvaine frouin
About the Curator :- Mark Fenn
Mark Fenn is a contemporary studio Jeweller and Silversmith with a BA (Hons) degree in Silversmithing, Goldsmithing and Jewellery from UCA.
Mark’s studio work is informed by the narrative and the personal. Mark is an award winning silversmith and a graduate member of Contemporary British Silversmiths. He is also a full member of The Association of Contemporary Jewellery and also sits on the ACJ advisory panel. He is based in the seaside town of Whitstable, Kent, UK.
Mark's web site can be found here www.mark-fenn.co.uk and www.markfenn.co.uk
Comment
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you all....but thank you all for your comments and feed back. regards Mark
Excellent show, Mark-
Creative solutions, challenging materials, exciting visions.
Crafthaus exhibitions bring all that is fresh and new to my computer screen and keep me growing. Objects, ideas and people I might never meet.
Thoughtful and fun work; I especially wish Karen Smith's zoetrope rings came with a video!
Both part one and part two are a real treat thank you for curating such a vibrant and interesting collection Mark.
Beautiful collection of very interesting works.
Wonderful exhibition!
Another stellar collection!
Thanks.
© 2023 Created by Brigitte Martin.
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