Back at the start of last month, on the 9th of November to be exact, I facilitated a workshop at Contemporary Metal in Perth. The One Design exhibition, installed in the gallery at CM, had opened the previous Friday night and with it the timber iteration of Clouds pattern had been put on display, fixed to the end wall. Now it was time to take it down and make something of all that laser cut jewellery in potentia!
I had seven eager participants, many of them local makers, who took to the challenge with gusto. It’s a pretty self-explanatory idea – grab the pattern, take it apart, wrestle fellow-participants for the pieces you like best and stitch, weave and wind the pieces into jewels that you like. For added interest, colour the wood surface to compliment your silk-thread choices.
The end result was… Well, many of the resulting works are displayed below for you to check out, but I was impressed at the unique array of very colourful pieces of mostly wearable jewellery, with the occasional object created for good measure. I had a collection of stainless fixings on hand, but makers being makers, many opted for their own mechanisms and for making fixings in precious metal.
As it turned out, three of the participants that Sunday are in the local Bauble Collective, who currently have a pop-up shop in Claremont in the Bayview Centre, and who will be featuring in the Fremantle Bazaar this coming week end. If you’re in Perth and surrounds I heartily encourage you to check them out – their display is great, not to mention the eye-poppingly beautiful work! (..and I say this as the proud new owner of one of Betty Walsh’s vibrant anodized bracelets!)
Many thanks to Claire (and daughter) for letting me in to take over the studio, on a Sunday, mind, for the workshop.
