Turning up on the first day of JEWELcamp I felt like a total impostor. I’m not a ‘real jeweller’ but a gleeful hobbyist. I haven’t gone to jewellery school. I’m impatient and I don’t know how to do things properly. Instead I go to jewellery night classes and watch bezel setting tutorials on YouTube.
JEWELcamp and the Iris Eichenberg Masterclass were four incredibly intensive days. Iris saw straight through my bullshit. In the Masterclass I introduced myself as a dilettante and said that I wanted to make lazy jewellery. Iris responded wearily “I’m not buying it”. She was right, I was faking it. I had thought far too much about how to be lazy rather than being truly lazy.
Never before have I had such rigorous and extensive conversations about jewellery and the possibilities of contemporary jewellery. I want to thank Iris for challenging me and the other HS6 participants for their generosity in sharing their own practices, thoughts and knowledge. I am delighted that I get to work with this group of people over the next two years. Also, I want to acknowledge Peter and Hilda for setting this programme up.
The following is an erratic selection of images. It kinda reflects what I have been up to and thinking about in the last month since JEWELcamp and the Masterclass.
Playing with stones. These are concepts for brooches.
Making necklaces with May from ice and ribbon.
I have been hanging out with Brian, a retired diamond setter. Brian tells me that “jewellers always want to be setters, but setters never want to be jewellers”.
Cubic zirconia.
Anh didn’t want to pay to have her acrylic fake nails removed. She used tinfoil to hold cottonwool soaked in acetone in place.
New brooch, watermelon stone and cubic zirconia. My setting skills are slowly getting better.
Silly heart brooch
Wearing one of Karl Fritsch’s rings at The National. Full of object envy. Karl is my mentor. I am visiting him in Wellington next week.
Jack xo xo