The art of making jewellery is intrinsically tied to storytelling – it’s on a small scale, but with large stakes. It follows, then, that wearing jewellery is both a private and public experience, and each piece serves as an extension of ourselves in a way few objects can.
Often worn close to the skin, jewellery moves with us through our lives. Rings can symbolise vows taken and, in many cases, outlast those making the vows; others are given as gifts or passed down through generations, filled with stories, emotions and meanings.
Museums show us the symbolic nature of jewellery through the ages in their collections of ancient artefacts. But while the important role adornments play in our everyday lives goes back thousands of years, what we consider precious, and who gets to tell those stories, is constantly evolving.
The Sarabande Foundation’s group of jewellers-in-residence, showcased on the following pages, are examples of the scope and potential of this creative storytelling form. The foundation, created in 2006 by Lee Alexander McQueen, has a mission to support talent with a fearless approach to their art. We look to the work of Charlotte Garnett, Martina Kocianova, Christopher Thompson Royds, Emily Frances Barrett, Castro Smith and Akiko Shinzato – each has a unique vision that challenges jewellery as we know it.
Charlotte Garnett
We can’t always pinpoint why an object brings us joy. We can measure its utility and function, but beauty and pleasure are subjective and harder to pin down. British jewellery designer Garnett focuses on improving mental health with ergonomic pieces that replace anxiety-driven behaviours like smoking or habitual fidgeting with more constructive coping skills. While handling objects designed to ground us isn’t new – think worry beads, stress balls or rosaries – Garnett’s work soothes the wearer by using tactile materials designed to be touched and moved, including smooth polished metal, customised resin and stone. Her Touchstone collection, for example, is filled with pieces that are made to be touched as much as they are to be worn. And her spinning pendant and point ring are also intended as both ornaments and tactile objects, designed to soothe by reducing sensory friction.
Spinning Pendant in 9k yellow gold, box chain in yellow gold and sterling silver, and detachable pebble in resin with 24k gold leaf and ash encapsulation; photography courtesy of Charlotte Garnett
Martina Kocianova
Mushrooms are both the medium and the message for the Slovakia-born, London-based jewellery artist and gem carver Martina Kocianova. Often underappreciated, fungi are the best good luck charm of our times; they grow out of decay and waste in a communicative system, have medicinal properties, are edible and can be transformed into wearable materials. The study of fungus, or mycology, informs Kocianova’s work as a kind of living gem. Inspired by foraging with her mother in their native land and the fairytales they would tell each other, Kocianova references these patterns and colours in her work. Organic shapes twist around fingers, wind around ears, or even resemble whimsical ear plugs. She hopes to soon use mycelium in her packaging to complete the circle.
Mushroom Headphone in silver, ruby zoisite, pearl, rubies and tsavorites, and enamel; photography courtesy of Martina Kocianova
Christopher Thompson Royds
In many art schools, the first lesson (spoiler alert) is that everything has been done before. The second is that the best designs are often found in nature. British artist Christopher Thompson Royds has taken both lessons to heart. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, not only is his work inspired by the English countryside, but it also questions how and why we. wear jewellery. Is it an ornament, symbol, sculpture or all of the above? His 18K gold sculptural violet can be plucked and worn as an earring. Hand-painted drop poppy earrings can be worn upright or lie flat, resembling pressed flowers. What stands out in Thompson Royds’s work is the deceptive simplicity of his subjects, such as a humble childhood daisy chain inspiring an intricate gold necklace. In his collection Natura Morta (Italian for still life), he presses white clover, buttercups and forget-me-nots, tracing around the stems with fine gold wire. With overlooked hedgerow wildflowers recast in gold, Thompson Royds challenges our ideas about what we should treasure.
from left: Honeysuckle Brooch in 18k gold, Daisy Pendant and Daisy Stem Earrings both in 18k yellow gold and diamonds; photography courtesy of Christopher Thompson Ryods and Andrew Steel
Emily Frances Barrett
For the self-taught East London-based artist and jeweller Emily Frances Barrett, there is beauty in the objects we throw away. Repurposing cigarette ends and wildflowers by coating them in layers of resin, she transforms them into precious earrings or pendants. Her work is a study in contrasts, creating pieces using new and found items such as repurposed ‘bench scrap’ silver. Intuitive rather than formulaic, Barrett’s creative process doesn’t impose uniformity. Instead, she allows the found object’s imperfections to lead, taking inspiration from a pavement weed, a can’s ring pull, feathers, sea glass and shells. In addition to her jewellery collection, Barrett also creates haunting art objects that look like items recovered from a shipwreck, like her Dredge Hand or Dredge Vessel, which are made from flint, found shells, china, sea glass and even teeth. In centring the beauty of imperfection and objects found in daily life, she allows us to see them differently.
from left: Cigarette Butt Earrings, River Weed Chain Necklace and Dredged Chain with Keshi Pearl and Solid Silver Venus’s Ear Shell, all in 925 sterling silver; photography courtesy of Emily Frances Barrett
Castro Smith
It took London-born Castro Smith three months to learn how to hold his tools and longer still to make his own set as an apprentice with the goldsmiths and engraving firm R. H. Wilkins – an essential step if you haven’t inherited tools. Early training as a painter and printmaker informs his intricate engraving style, which sometimes resembles tapestry, china patterns or dreamscapes. He depicts a wide range of subjects, from ships and skulls to Nordic wolves and sea beasts, weaving together European mythology and Japanese artisanship, having studied with renowned masters Hiroshi Suzuki, Kenji Io and Mamoru Nakagawa. Evidence of the reverse or seal engraving that Smith references in his pieces was found in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and can be used as a legal signature and proof of authenticity; reverse engraving also allows wearers to reproduce an image in 3D relief in wax. Smith’s work, however, is far from contained by tradition. The engraving he does on all sides of his work began as an accident when his tools slipped – traditionally, engraving is centred – and has since become his signature.
from left: Blue Orchid Signet in 18k yellow gold, cognac and white diamonds with blue ceramic plating, Heart Signet (heavyweight) in 9k yellow gold with blue ceramic plating, Blue Orchid Signet (inside); photography courtesy of Castro Smith
Akiko Shinzato
We measure the value of a piece of jewellery in carats, size, weight and settings, but what about its sense of humour or irony? The work of the Central Saint Martins-educated, Okinawa-born jewellery designer Akiko Shinzato has both in abundance. She spans a spectrum, from her delicate Halo collection, with its concentric gold-plated silver circles resembling religious iconography, to the Clown series, inspired by, yes, clown make-up realised in mouth-covering jewellery form. Her Self-Confidence Boosters set suggests that some yoga postures, or even smiling, can improve mood. In one piece, brass encircles both upper arms, forcing the wearer to stand shoulders back; another includes side blinders (to focus) and a chin rest that lifts your gaze; others encourage/force you to smile by curling the sides of your mouth upward. What at first glance looks positive and uplifting also restricts movement – perhaps a comment on toxic positivity, the double standard we place on women, or both? Whatever the answer, her nuanced work helps express our inner and outer worlds.
head/eye piece and nose piece in gold-plated brass and Swarovski crystals from the Another Skin collection; photography courtesy of Runa Anzai
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 74 – MUSIC, TALENT, CREATIVE – on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
