Returning to Learning

After a hiatus of decades, and having mulled over the idea since 2018, I have made the leap back into academia by enrolling onto an Arts University Plymouth Masters course in October 2022. It’s not that I was swimming around wondering where I was going with my business but rather that my own personal art practice would benefit from critical review and fresh experimentation. The key aim of this two year period of study is to research materials and processes in order to create my own coloured and textured components to enliven and expand the range of designs I create.

As noted in Colouring Up, my practice has focused on metals and methods of patination and any additional colour has been provided with the occasional pearl and a splash of gold leaf. Conventional jewellery depends to a great degree on cut and polished stones, semi-precious or precious, to provide colour and a sense of luxury. The ethical problem with such stones is that many are mined, processed and brought to the market at appalling human and environmental cost. I lack the resources to be able to guarantee that I would not be purchasing such stones, compounding the damage.

A further problem is that pre-shaped stones demand that the design should dance around the stone rather complimenting the piece in the round. There is a tendency for such jewellery to be viewed as an investment or as a status symbol rather than being valued for its aesthetic worth or its emotional meaning. This is just not how I view my work as I want it to draw you in, make you feel that its part of you rather than a socially acceptable tag. My work will never be recognised for an imprinted logo, rather I would hope that it might be recognised as being made by me, as a distinctive product of my art practice.

So this all leads me to my Masters research in trying to create jewellery that catches the eye and the touch of a hand for all the right reasons: to instil a sense of curiosity and pleasure in the viewer and to empower the wearer, ensuring they do not merge into the background but rather declare their personality and their values through their adornment.