It’s About The Objects!

Its about the objects, it always has been.

In the last day or so, I feel like I’ve had an epiphany, a ‘light bulb’ moment. Throughout unit 2, I have been struggling to decipher exactly what my three dimensional drawings represent; however after a tutorial, I was reminded that it is ok to be interested in objects purely for their aesthetics. If I am totally honest with myself, the real reason I am drawn to specific objects and enjoy responding to them, is simply because I like how they look and feel. They are aesthetically pleasing. I’ve realised that to make refined, beautiful pieces of jewellery, aesthetics are so obviously important, yet my personal interests have been blinding me from seeing and creating this beauty.

Yet again, I have naively been trying to incorporate ALL my interests into my pieces.

When I look back even to my BA, I always struggled to combine my research, interests and thoughts into my final jewellery, and in this project especially, I have found that I create 3D drawings much more successfully when I solely look into how an object physically looks...forgetting the background story, simply concentrating on aesthetics. I have always found myself coming back to objects; the same kind of objects, with function, practicality and mechanisms, and I love the idea of celebrating the ordinary. I revisited the quote I found by William Morris - “The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life” - this is so true for me. I still am incredibly interested in researching feminine issues, but this does not mean that I have to relate to it in my physical work...and I am starting to come to terms with the fact that I don’t actually want to anymore. I don’t want to be known as ‘the girl who makes feminist jewellery’, because I don’t feel strongly enough about the subject to argue with anyone about it.

I am much more passionate about objects and our relationships with them, and the idea of them being part of the framework of our lives...I could talk to you for hours about fascinating, everyday objects (but don’t worry, I wont right now).

I love to read and write, I now realise I can fulfil my found curiosities through writing; I am going to set myself goals to achieve this. I know for certain that I would like to teach, and this continual research into a wide variety of areas of design will only benefit me. I want to start writing regular reviews on exhibitions, articles or journals and create conversations about makers I see as pioneers in the jewellery and design world. Thinking back to the Pathways seminars with Jane Webb and how much her knowledge inspired me, this now seems to make so much more sense for my own personal practice - separating my writing and my physical work, making the processes more natural, more enjoyable and truer to me.

I’m trying very hard to not contradict everything I have been writing about in the last couple of posts...my intentions haven’t totally changed and nor have my plans for my making, its just my understanding of how they embody my thoughts and interests has slightly shifted. Then having the confidence to step back and say, ‘yes this is it. This is what my practice is about.’

In the last post I briefly began to talk about the type of objects I am interested in. Objects with movement, practicality and function, they are useful, mundane objects; I want to transform these silent associates of our lives into something seen as joyous and luxurious. I have been using bright colours to attract attention and create a feeling of celebration; the forms and structures echo elements from everyday objects. I aim to recreate the character in which the objects themselves have been made, exploring similar materials and techniques, yet used to produce a completely different outcome - jewellery.