ANETA WROBEL (DC) has been a jewellery and object designer and maker for over 10 years now. Intimate personal and collective backgrounds play major stimuli in Aneta’s work. The notion of known and unexplored, decayed and modern, the amalgamation of past and present noticeable in every aspect of daily life are all dominant in Aneta’s designs. Upon contemplation, the body of objects is born, often characterized by a contrast of colors, textures as well as materials. Aneta’s work is also often driven by the material itself, with her canny ability of investigation and experimental manipulation taking center stage of artistic expression.
ANNELISSE PFEIFER (DC) trained as a gemmologist and jeweller at The School of Jewellery in Birmingham, UK. She is dynamic, bold, and forever seeking the extraordinary in what others might consider ordinary. Her ever-growing fascination with objects, materials, compositions and fictional scenarios has encouraged her to find ways for expanding her practice. Deconstructing and reconstructing reality through making objects and wearables, she invites a playful, experimental, and surreal outcome. Her knack for the curious and her deep sensitivity to colour and texture bring her work to life.
APHRA CHEESMAN (HS) graduated from RMIT with a BA Fine Art (Honours) in 2020. She currently lives and works in Melbourne. Aphra is interested in the in-between and overlooked moments of daily life. Drawing ideas from material culture studies and social anthropology, she seeks out meaning in ordinary things as a way of understanding more about the collective human experience. Aphra was selected as a finalist for the Marzee International Graduate Show in 2019 and Talente in Munich in 2021.
BECKY BLISS (HS) graduated from Whitireia New Zealand in 2010 and is also a graphic designer. Her current work looks at social issues such as global warming, fair pay and equal employment opportunities. She was a participant in Handshake 1, 3, and 5 as well as HandShake alumni exhibitions, in the New Zealand/German Wunderrüma exhibition, and an exhibitor in Schmuck 2020 in Munich and Valencia, and Schmuck 2015 in Munich and Prague.
BRENDON MONSON (HS) completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Dunedin School of Art in 2013. He was awarded the 2014 Fingers Gallery Graduate Award and has been a participant in the Handshake mentoring project. He has exhibited internationally and throughout New Zealand and currently lives in Dunedin. He is presently employed at Dunedin School of Art as technical teacher and night class tutor. Brendon is drawn to the areas in which the digital and the analogue intersect. “What interests me is the subversion that occurs when one intervenes in a machine-made process with the ‘hand’- the maker’s hand”.
CAROLINE THOMAS (HS) was born in London, England to New Zealand parents who travelled to the UK in the 1960s and didn’t find their way home until forty-odd years later. Caroline studied history of art at Edinburgh University and jewellery design at Whitireia NZ. Before discovering the contemporary jewellery drug, Caroline worked for twenty years as an image researcher in the publishing industry, employed by many and varied clients including Penguin Books and Guinness World Records. Caroline now lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.
ISABELLE BUSNEL (DC)’s work explores all the stereotypes of classic jewellery and gives them a contemporary twist by turning them into silicone rubber necklaces and magnetic brooches. Silicone rubber is a fascinating material for jewellery and, when appropriately worked, lures viewers into mistaking it for ceramic, plaster, plastic or even glass. Isabelle’s silicone brooches and necklaces are rooted into the most traditional heritage through the use of iconic pieces of classic jewellery. Her intention is that their original arrangement, the use of unexpected non-precious material, and the colours used make those pieces visually intriguing and socially communicative.
JO GARNER (DC) studied at Duncan of Jordanstone, University of Dundee 2003-2007 and the Royal College of Art 2015-2017. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and purchased for the permanent collection of the Kolumba Museum of Contemporary Art in Cologne. Her career continues to develop through an interest in people and an ability to communicate and collaborate on many levels. Currently, she is concerned with the many strands involved in being a maker and the route to becoming an artist. Jo is heavily influenced by feelings of belonging and identity in relation to place. In a world of increasing division, she hopes to explore how objects and jewellery solidify our sense of self. Trained at London Metropolitan University, BA 2001, MA 2003 (with Simone ten Hompel), Jo McAllister has re—established her studio on the East Sussex coast where she designs and makes jewellery by hand using traditional gold—smithing techniques and Stone Age tools. Influenced by light and space, ancient and modern landscapes her work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally most notably at Electrum Gallery, Crafts Council at the V&A, Goldsmiths’ Fair, Galerie Marzee, LOOT at the Museum of Art & Design, NYC. Feathering was acquired by the Alice & Louis Koch Collection of finger rings, Swiss National Museum, Zurich.
KATHRYN YEATS (HS) studied jewellery design at Whitireia Polytechnic (New Zealand), completing a diploma in Visual Arts in 2006 and has also completed study in science, history, heritage materials and the history of art, which informs her practice. Currently, she lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her works are often small structures which explore transient and fragile materials such as wood and textiles combined with metals. Kathryn participated in Handshake 2 and 3 and her recent works have been exploring women and healthcare and mycorrhizal networks.
KELLY McDONALD (HS) completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts in 1997. Based in Wellington New Zealand since 2004, McDonald tutored in the contemporary jewellery programme at Whitireia (2007- 2019), is a longtime participant in the Handshake mentoring project and completed a Masters of Visual Art at Massey University (2019). McDonald excavated meaning from discarded domestic and industrial objects, melding the narratives of home, workshop and motherhood to explore both power and gender constructs. Her jewellery re-contextualisations traverse tense and complex territories between people, bodies and things, revealing much about the labours and lived experiences of women.
NADENE CARR (HS) completed an Auckland Bachelor of Visual Art in 2009. A participant in Handshake 1,3 and 5.Her work looks at the dynamic relationship between the beautiful and ugly. Carr pushes the aesthetic elements of what constitutes the beautiful and the ugly by investigating the provocative and challenging concepts that arise: culture, gender, age, taste and appropriation. Using the age-old materials and techniques of leather, wood, binding, and hand-painting Nik revisits the methods, reshapes them, and tries to bring them into a modern context. Most recently, she has been working with 3D printing using plant-based filaments which she feels fits well with this ethos of bringing alternative jewellery techniques and materials into the now. After studying Sociology and Psychology, Nik worked for a number of years in a variety of media industries before following her passion for jewellery. Her background in the social sciences is evident in her work which explores themes associated with these disciplines.
NINA VAN DUIJNHOVEN (HS) completed her Bachelor of Applied Arts, majoring in Contemporary Jewellery at Whitireia, Wellington in 2018. Nina’s work explores environmental issues and spiritual beliefs such as impermanence and non-attachment. She examines non-attachment to material possessions, emotions, ideas and beliefs, attachments of artists to work made, to jewellery owned and worn. Paper is her current material of choice to express ideas around ephemerality. Nina is a participant in the current Handshake 6 program. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and was selected for Schmuck 2020.
MANDY FLOOD (HS) graduated from UniTech Aotearoa in 2012, with a B.VA in Contemporary Craft/Jewellery. She was awarded the Fingers Gallery Graduate Award 2013. She lives and works in Auckland after emigrating to Aotearoa in 1998. Her current work looks to the daily urban environment she lives with alongside the memories of the Birmingham she grew up in. She was a participant in HS4. 2019 saw her gather a group of makers together, resulting in an interactive group show, The Jewellers Game at Studio One, Auckland. Working alongside other makers is fuel to her practice.
MAUD TRAON (DC) is known for taking an approach to making jewellery that combines vibrant colours and an unusual way of setting stones. Maud’s work sits in direct contrast to the standard approach to jewellery of setting highly cut stones within a traditional fixing. The stones are set in a manner that reflects their natural structure, glitter is treated as an equal to precious stones and the object in its entirety appears to have fallen out of a natural wonderland.
PETRA BISHAI (DC)’s work is inspired by urban life reflecting her fascination with living in a large city. Her collections explore the paradox of belonging versus alienation and how we adapt and interact with our surroundings. Petra considers the transitions that occur within her own cultural environment drawing upon her Middle Eastern heritage and London upbringing. Petra has run her London based practice for over 25 years, she is driven by the next piece of work that she will design and make. Her work is defined by a linear style and pared—down forms.
SARAH READ (HS) holds a BA Fine Arts from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and a Bachelor of Applied Arts in contemporary jewellery from Whitireia New Zealand. Her practice is idea—driven, usually process-based and often features third-party participation. The outcome may not be traditional jewellery forms, but relationship to the body is central; for her, this reaches beyond considerations of wearability to include her endeavours as a maker, and strategies for engaging viewers in active response. Read wants her work to spark connections, force encounters, cause a pause. She is currently researching casual social ties and their importance to our well-being.
TEMPCONTEMP is a curatorial project experimenting with the exhibition of contemporary jewellery. Founded by Laila Marie Costa lailamariecosta.com and Anna Gray annagrayjewellery.com, and working with Claire Vaganiance @disasterispresent as co—curator, it’s an independent entity, full of questions and searching for spaces and artists to collaborate and dialogue within the exploration of ‘jewellery’. With the closing of the Northcity4 premises in 2019, TempContemp has become a non-corporeal entity. Our exhibition themes are often provocative, but we aim to keep the discussion open, to truly see what jewellers are thinking, and how they approach certain themes in their works.
VELVET HART (DC) studied Jewellery at Kensington & Chelsea College, she also holds a BA Hons in Fine Art & Ceramics from Camberwell School of Art.The unifying approach within her artwork is to reflect the bizarre nature of our environment. She enjoys dropping objects into the shifting boundaries of Craft & Art. Lately, she has been trying to understand String Theory, but it is not going well.