A handful of pebbles

The work I made for our mid point exhibition, Proof of Concept, was predominantly driven by material exploration.

Since I started making jewellery I’ve been interested in working with stone. I love the materiality of it and it’s connection to the natural world. I love the process of carving and the act of reduction suits my minimalist tendencies. Stone is a material as old as time yet I feel there’s still space for exploration, especially within the field of contemporary jewellery.

I joined Handshake in order to push my practice and have a safe and supportive space to experiment. Our classes earlier in the year with Estela Saez really challenged my need for control, planning and perfectionism. At the beginning I was reluctant to let go but I realised that there can be two (or more!) ways of working.

 

 

I chose to push my work by adding fabric to stone. I’ve always been a sewer and had an affinity with fabric. Stone and fabric is an unexpected combination. The hard and the soft. The masculinity of stone carving and the femininity of fabric and needlework.

There was a lot to explore and experiment with. Endless possibilities. I narrowed it down by focusing only on using fabric. Looking at ways to retain the stone without using actual stone, instead emulating it and finding ways to “carve” the fabric. I sought to find the balance between stoneness and fabricness.

 

 

I added embroidery as surface decoration. I was drawn to the process of embroidery as it has a meditative aspect similar to stone carving.

I want my work to evoke the feeling of taking a walk along the beach and fossicking for unusual looking pebbles. To remind us of the beauty of the everyday, the mundane and the small moments of wonder that are so easy to forget when constantly being overwhelmed by ongoing global crises – war, disaster and disease.

 

 

This work is very fresh and I am only at the beginning. Moving forward I want to bring stone back in and for the two materials to speak to each other, imitate each other. For the lines to blur and so the viewer is not quite sure where the stone ends and the fabric begins.