In re-making these pieces, I admired (as always) the delicate details and mechanisms costume jewellery often has. I wanted to salvage these where possible, thinking of the people who originally designed and made these jewels, so I just added a light touch in order to freshen the jewels up for a new round. I’ve used concrete and paint as the main ingredients. Welcome to the city! For colour, spontaneous spray paint, plus durable enamel for splashes of surprise. The largest pendant holds translucent costume gems in between two kiln-fused plastic sheets; it’s large but feather light. One brooch and one pendant have the word LOVE engraved in the back. The knotted pink neckpiece is covered in concrete, dried and moved to shake the excess off, then painted. The smallest pin can also be an earring, or a little brooch; the pieces of glass within the concrete will wink to the viewer when sunlight catches them. All of the pieces, to me at least, definitely have a touch of nostalgia about them too. Time, time, time … !
The Remade works use retired jewellery pieces along with leftover stainless-steel parts, originally laser cut for my Marfa, TX series of works. To make order from chaos I usually turn to geometry. In this case, I found a pre-made grid (originally created to map finds collected from a small town in the USA) and attached to each a small amount of the discarded treasures gifted to me by Bridget Kennedy. Similarly, I don’t often mix colours or textures, but inspired by jeweller Alice Potter I
felt it was time to try.
In the first iteration of designing this jewellery, I intended to honour the previous wearers; the makers and their forgotten jewellery. To remake better versions that would not be discarded. But, the sadness and the abandonment enclosed in one small bag was too much for me. Each sad, sticky item has been heavily deconstructed and remade into bangles, girdled by a contemporary shrink rubber and painted. The form of what lies beneath is subtly revealed again through gentle mark making. The lapel studs are water cast from costume metals, randomly beautiful! The sadness is archived into our history’s past and I hope the jewellery is reloved in the future – in its bold and amorphous forms because, ‘Some Things Are Better Left Unseen’.
The “Impression of Ghosts” series are made using the patterns of fraying woven jewelry that was once loved. I pressed the intricate and delicate structures into porcelain clays which created patterns like that of tyre marks in wet soil. Some of the structures literally fell apart during the process. The porcelain patterns were made into “beads” that can be used in an almost traditional way.
I then thread them on stainless steel wire and clear plastics to create flowing forms that can be worn around the neck, and simple geometric forms on ears and fingers.
I acknowledge the original custodians of this land, the Cammeraygal people,
and pay respect to Elders past and present and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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