Talismans for Travel at Adelphi Hotel
Adelphi Hotel
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Map reference number: 57
Adelphi Hotel
187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 21 August – 2 September
Artist/s: Amy Renshaw, Anita Crowther, Brad Bird, Cinnamon Lee, Courtney Jackson, Daniel Serra, Emma Jane Donald, Jose Marin, Julia deVille, Julia Storey, Laura Eyles, Liv Boyle, Mel Young, Natalia Milosz-Piekarska, Phoebe Porter, Sarah Heyward, Vikki Kassioras
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e.g.etal and Adelphi Hotel present Talismans for Travel: a collection of contemporary wearable objects that seeks to provide protection, luck and guidance - and celebrate the experience of travel and exploration.
The pieces, designed and handmade by e.g.etal artists, will be exhibited at the Adelphi Hotel during Radiant Pavilion 2017.
Despite monumental changes in the way we travel, the act of leaving home still evokes atavistic pleasures and anxieties. Exhilarating, arduous, mundane and rewarding, travel offers moments of both heady independence and profound human connection. Bookended by movement, we seek stillness: a temporary home.
A talisman can be any object that we inscribe with the power to affect our emotions or surroundings. This exhibition will explore the ways in which contemporary jewellery can give physical and artistic expression to the ubiquitous desire for safe passage and a sense of place, in the pursuit of new worlds.
The pieces, designed and handmade by e.g.etal artists, will be exhibited at the Adelphi Hotel during Radiant Pavilion 2017.
Despite monumental changes in the way we travel, the act of leaving home still evokes atavistic pleasures and anxieties. Exhilarating, arduous, mundane and rewarding, travel offers moments of both heady independence and profound human connection. Bookended by movement, we seek stillness: a temporary home.
A talisman can be any object that we inscribe with the power to affect our emotions or surroundings. This exhibition will explore the ways in which contemporary jewellery can give physical and artistic expression to the ubiquitous desire for safe passage and a sense of place, in the pursuit of new worlds.
a. Adelphi Hotel Lobby
b. Adelphi Hotel Facade
c. Adelphi Hotel Foyer
b. Adelphi Hotel Facade
c. Adelphi Hotel Foyer
About
Amy Renshaw studied Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT and has now been making jewellery for almost two decades. Amy’s contemporary jewellery is characterised by pronounced geometric details that involve crisp, clean lines combined with an often unexpected or asymmetrical feature. Each piece is made with careful consideration, inspired by architecture and textiles and stemming from a love of materials and the sheer joy of making. Amy’s designs may initially take the form of a drawing or an assemblage of paper before they are realised in metal. Silver pieces often incorporate an embossing technique or a subtle element of colour.
A childhood love of collecting gemstones and minerals veins the creations of Melbourne artist Anita Crowther. Working in silver, gold and semi-precious stones that she cuts and polishes herself, Anita passionately explores the colours and textures offered to us by all elements of nature. Every earring, ring and necklace is an ode to this rapture, “the surreal state of awe when viewing a magnificent sky or a patch of fluorescent green moss or grey stone”.
Drawing and making have been part of Brad Bird’s life since childhood, a passion that has found small-scale expression in jewellery making and design. Brad studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT, before honing his technical skills through hands-on learning in the commercial jewellery trade. Brad believes technical mastery plays an important role in unlocking creativity, allowing unhindered expression and the concrete realisation of concept. Brad’s work is deeply inspired by German elements of design, reducing an idea to its simplest form and communicating through clean, clear lines. Linear elements and sculptural forms belie an unexpected complexity: closer examination reveals subtly varied dimensions, offset stones and quiet textural contrast. Working with gold and gems, Brad’s work exhibits a seamless quality enhanced by a considered attention to colour and finish.
Through the combination of traditional gold and silversmithing techniques and computer-driven processes, Cinnamon Lee’s work explores the intersection between technology, the machine and the hand-made. Cinnamon’s formal study explored these ideas and culminated in the completion of a Master of Philosophy (Gold and Silversmithing), which she completed at the Australian National University in Canberra. She currently works from Metalab Studio in Sydney and her work has been exhibited across Australia, as well as in Japan and the United Kingdom. Cinnamon’s work is recognisable for the geometric complexity of its structural forms; designs utilise digital processes in order to create intricate structures and patterns through the repetition of basic shapes. Cinnamon investigates the potential of new technologies to augment contemporary jewellery and craft practice, employing 3D computer modeling to create forms that would be difficult, if not impossible, to produce using traditional techniques alone.
Courtney Jackson is an emerging contemporary jeweller based in South Australia. Courtney’s work explores the possibilities of manipulating fine precious metal wire using self-developed techniques. She uses these techniques to create repetition, texture and detail, building complex pieces in wintry tones of silver and pale gold. These delicate wire based structures and solid patterned forms are imagined new life, alien blooms sprouting from a collision of industrial and natural landscapes. Upon finishing an Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (Jewellery) at Box Hill Institute of Tafe, Courtney went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT in 2012. In 2013, Courtney was accepted into the JamFactory as in associate in the Metal Design Studio. During her time there, she worked on several high profile commissions for Brand SA and the South Australian Museum. Courtney remains there as a studio tenant, making jewellery and objects for exhibition, limited edition product and commissions.
Daniel Serra attempts to slow down time with every ring he creates: savouring each step, giving importance and mindfulness to each detail. Through this process, Daniel invites the wearer to notice, ponder and engage with the piece. He uses manual hand tools to carve his timber rings – strictly no power tools – borrowing skills from times past and forgotten trades. Daniel is inspired by the potential of what can be created from a small block of wood. He is captivated by its individuality, its colour, texture and smell. His work reproduces aspects of nature, architecture and human emotion, translating these ideas into a beautiful and wearable object.
Originally from New Zealand, Emma Jane Donald studied a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) at Auckland University. Upon relocating to Melbourne, she proceeded to study an Advanced Diploma of Gold and Silversmithing at NMIT. The combination of these areas of study results in work that displays an attention to construction processes and a commitment to artisanal modes of production. Emma is fascinated by how things are made and by how they work. Her work often involves the appropriation of basic building forms from history—pyramids, domes—interpreted on a smaller, more personal scale. A continuing fascination with micro-organisms, tessellations, geodesic domes, space travel and the aesthetics of futuristic architecture results in work that adopts wide-eyed science-fiction sensibilities. She explores these elements and interests in contemporary jewellery, finding ways to reconcile and marry the aesthetic worlds of the organic and the industrial.
Inspired in boyhood by a goldsmith father, Jose Marin undertook jewellery training at the impressive age of thirteen in his home city of Valencia, Spain. From these auspicious beginnings flourished a master craftsman with a passion for manipulating the most vibrant and challenging materials. History and modernity entwine in joyful harmony throughout Jose’s work, as architectural titanium forms meet delicately baroque twists of silver and gold. Jose teaches jewellery-making at EASD Valencia (Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de València), Spain’s first school to implement a Bachelor of Jewellery degree.
Julia deVille’s work is informed by a fascination with the acceptance of death expressed in Memento Mori jewellery of the 15th to 18th centuries and Victorian Mourning jewellery. Julia studied at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE and has also completed a taxidermy mentorship. Her work is characterised by the elegant combination of these fields and ideas and has been extensively exhibited in Australia as well as in the USA and Europe. Julia employs taxidermy as a celebration of life and sees it as the preservation of something beautiful. Julia’s work is designed to serve as contemporary Memento Mori—a reminder of mortality. Julia uses traditional precious and semi-precious metals and gems and occasionally materials that were once living. In examining mortality, her work incorporates motifs that encourage viewers and wearers to identify with their own fate and challenge a prevalent culture that obsessively plans the future: forget an unknowable tomorrow and instead embrace the present.
Since graduating in 2006 from RMIT’s Fine Arts department with a degree in Gold & Silversmithing, Julia Storey has established a boutique jewellery studio in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, and has exhibited both throughout Australia and internationally. Her practice is influenced by natural, organic textures, executed with traditional techniques. She finds particular inspiration in the textures of beaches, oceans, and aquatic life but also in the varied craft techniques of the jeweller, and in traditional precious materials like gold alloys, diamonds and other gemstones.
Laura Eyle’s work is a reflection of her approach to life. Each piece she makes is an adventure strewn with surprises: little worlds waiting to be explored. Embracing adventure is a central part of Laura’s life and her making practice. Her most recent experience involved relocating to the remote Dampier Peninsula to work at Australia’s oldest operating South Sea Pearl Farm. In 2013 Laura crossed the Nullarbor to embrace desert life and work in the largest open pit gold mine in Australia. These explorations imbue her practice with a strong sense of respect for her materials. Laua has two BAs in Fine Arts from RMIT (Painting and Gold & Silversmithing); a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne; Adv Dip in Engineering (Jewellery) from NMIT; plus business management and training qualifications, leading her full circle back to TAFE where she is now teaching.
Liv Boyle’s practice is testament to an artist’s ability to draw meaning from materials. For her, these meanings can be deeply personal—rooted in memories from a rural upbringing—or more broadly artistic, evoking the history of sculpture and personal adornment. Liv was born and raised in New Zealand, the culture and landscape of which is indelibly tied to her work. Having studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) at the University of Auckland, and an Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (Jewellery) at NMIT in Melbourne, Liv’s work has now been exhibited throughout Australia and in Japan. It employs cattle bone, horn and ebony set in silver with accents of yellow gold. In this jewellery there is a warmth that lends itself naturally to the body. These are bones, and this is horn, that could find a place in Pacific adornment from centuries past, or on her grandfather’s mantle, a modest hunter’s dusty relic. She approaches these materials with a maker’s tender touch and a sculptor’s aesthetic nous, shearing away what is unnecessary to reveal something honest and beautiful.
Melinda Young is fascinated by the potential for unexpected narrative, finding inspiration in architecture, the landscape, and her everyday surroundings. She takes delight the colours and textures she encounters on her travels through life and this is reflected in her work. Exploring her culturally rich environment is a constant creative stimulus for a maker who is attracted to the tiny details – the patina and beauty of the everyday. Melinda has a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, she has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas since 1997, her work is held in public collections in Australia and Norway has been included in numerous publications. In addition to her jewellery practice Melinda engages in work as a university lecturer, curator, writer and workshop convenor.
Amulets, talismans and fetishes influence Natalia Milosz-Piekarska’s work: our innate attraction to, and subsequent projection of belief, trust, power and ritual onto certain jewellery pieces and objects. The exploration of this idea began when Natalia initially studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University after having studied a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) at Monash University. Since then, she has lectured at RMIT University and taken part in exhibitions at e.g.etal, Craft Victoria and Object Gallery. In 2011, with the support of the British Council and the Ian Potter Cultural Fund, Natalia undertook an internship in London with contemporary jeweller, Scott Wilson. As well as employing an eclectic range of materials and techniques in her contemporary jewellery, Natalia adopts an intuitive approach that embraces the serendipitous and the experimental. She is inspired by the animist notion that inanimate objects can be imbued with a spirit and she explores the relationship that we build with certain pieces of jewellery, as they become a point of reassurance and comfort, guidance and contemplation.
Since 1998, Phoebe Porter has been developing her intimate knowledge of materials, process and craftsmanship. Working primarily with titanium, stainless steel and aluminium, she successfully combines industrial materials and processes with the refined hand skills of a craftsperson. Each of Phoebe’s designs is refined to its necessary elements, often using a mechanism as a starting point, which then becomes integral to the design. Phoebe’s deep understanding of the innate properties of her chosen materials allows her to exploit their characteristics to best perform their chosen function – the spring and fit of a clasp, rigidity and weight of a bracelet, lightness of an earring and suppleness of a necklace. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at ANU, Phoebe has exhibited extensively across Australia as well as in Japan, Germany and the UK. Her work has been acquired for a number of public collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.
Sarah Heyward’s work is an exploration of our perception of the world and our selves within it. She finds inspiration in cosmic landscapes, the natural world and the randomness and asymmetry of the everyday. Her work is angular and bold, but at the same time it is understated with a subtle colour palette. Sarah’s work is influenced and formed by the spontaneity of traditional techniques, namely fusion and reticulation. Often her work fuses different metals such as blackened silver and gold through heating the metals until the surface ‘swims’ and becomes one piece. The results are controlled but unpredictable, they have a mercurial quality referencing far away galactic landscapes dotted with sparkling stars.
Vikki Kassioras has studied a Certificate of Jewellery Design and Manufacture at Box Hill TAFE and a Bachelor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University. Her carefully crafted work draws on her heritage and her beliefs. The aesthetic qualities of Vikki’s pieces resonate with a simplicity that is immediately captivating, honouring the very personal source of inspiration. Vikki has an interest in archaeology, classical mythology and archetypal symbols. She often uses the ancient gold working techniques of fusing and granulation. For Vikki, bonding metal on a molecular level speaks to the potential for purity that exists within jewellery. The uneven and textured surfaces of her pieces are the result of an array of processes, giving this contemporary jewellery the feeling of being a recently discovered artefact. Vikki’s work incorporates stories that help us understand our place in the world, as well as the human condition.
e.g.etal is a Melbourne gallery that represents and supports Australia’s thriving contemporary jewellery design movement. Established in 1998, e.g.etal maintains a passionate commitment to contemporary jewellery. The gallery now represents over 60 Australian and New Zealand jewellery artists and designers, with occasional international guests. The constantly evolving collection is an inspiring selection of contemporary jewellery conceived and made by individual designers. e.g.etal seeks to promote the essence of contemporary jewellery: a practice defined by considered research, conceptual ingenuity and intrepid technical diligence that challenges and delights, looks to the past and forges into the future. A treasured piece of jewellery has relevance and meaning for a lifetime and beyond. These works are future heirlooms that will be handed down, across and up the generations. At e.g.etal each piece is unique, but each is alike: carefully conceived, beautifully crafted and sincerely passed on.
Amy Renshaw studied Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT and has now been making jewellery for almost two decades. Amy’s contemporary jewellery is characterised by pronounced geometric details that involve crisp, clean lines combined with an often unexpected or asymmetrical feature. Each piece is made with careful consideration, inspired by architecture and textiles and stemming from a love of materials and the sheer joy of making. Amy’s designs may initially take the form of a drawing or an assemblage of paper before they are realised in metal. Silver pieces often incorporate an embossing technique or a subtle element of colour.
A childhood love of collecting gemstones and minerals veins the creations of Melbourne artist Anita Crowther. Working in silver, gold and semi-precious stones that she cuts and polishes herself, Anita passionately explores the colours and textures offered to us by all elements of nature. Every earring, ring and necklace is an ode to this rapture, “the surreal state of awe when viewing a magnificent sky or a patch of fluorescent green moss or grey stone”.
Drawing and making have been part of Brad Bird’s life since childhood, a passion that has found small-scale expression in jewellery making and design. Brad studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT, before honing his technical skills through hands-on learning in the commercial jewellery trade. Brad believes technical mastery plays an important role in unlocking creativity, allowing unhindered expression and the concrete realisation of concept. Brad’s work is deeply inspired by German elements of design, reducing an idea to its simplest form and communicating through clean, clear lines. Linear elements and sculptural forms belie an unexpected complexity: closer examination reveals subtly varied dimensions, offset stones and quiet textural contrast. Working with gold and gems, Brad’s work exhibits a seamless quality enhanced by a considered attention to colour and finish.
Through the combination of traditional gold and silversmithing techniques and computer-driven processes, Cinnamon Lee’s work explores the intersection between technology, the machine and the hand-made. Cinnamon’s formal study explored these ideas and culminated in the completion of a Master of Philosophy (Gold and Silversmithing), which she completed at the Australian National University in Canberra. She currently works from Metalab Studio in Sydney and her work has been exhibited across Australia, as well as in Japan and the United Kingdom. Cinnamon’s work is recognisable for the geometric complexity of its structural forms; designs utilise digital processes in order to create intricate structures and patterns through the repetition of basic shapes. Cinnamon investigates the potential of new technologies to augment contemporary jewellery and craft practice, employing 3D computer modeling to create forms that would be difficult, if not impossible, to produce using traditional techniques alone.
Courtney Jackson is an emerging contemporary jeweller based in South Australia. Courtney’s work explores the possibilities of manipulating fine precious metal wire using self-developed techniques. She uses these techniques to create repetition, texture and detail, building complex pieces in wintry tones of silver and pale gold. These delicate wire based structures and solid patterned forms are imagined new life, alien blooms sprouting from a collision of industrial and natural landscapes. Upon finishing an Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (Jewellery) at Box Hill Institute of Tafe, Courtney went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT in 2012. In 2013, Courtney was accepted into the JamFactory as in associate in the Metal Design Studio. During her time there, she worked on several high profile commissions for Brand SA and the South Australian Museum. Courtney remains there as a studio tenant, making jewellery and objects for exhibition, limited edition product and commissions.
Daniel Serra attempts to slow down time with every ring he creates: savouring each step, giving importance and mindfulness to each detail. Through this process, Daniel invites the wearer to notice, ponder and engage with the piece. He uses manual hand tools to carve his timber rings – strictly no power tools – borrowing skills from times past and forgotten trades. Daniel is inspired by the potential of what can be created from a small block of wood. He is captivated by its individuality, its colour, texture and smell. His work reproduces aspects of nature, architecture and human emotion, translating these ideas into a beautiful and wearable object.
Originally from New Zealand, Emma Jane Donald studied a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) at Auckland University. Upon relocating to Melbourne, she proceeded to study an Advanced Diploma of Gold and Silversmithing at NMIT. The combination of these areas of study results in work that displays an attention to construction processes and a commitment to artisanal modes of production. Emma is fascinated by how things are made and by how they work. Her work often involves the appropriation of basic building forms from history—pyramids, domes—interpreted on a smaller, more personal scale. A continuing fascination with micro-organisms, tessellations, geodesic domes, space travel and the aesthetics of futuristic architecture results in work that adopts wide-eyed science-fiction sensibilities. She explores these elements and interests in contemporary jewellery, finding ways to reconcile and marry the aesthetic worlds of the organic and the industrial.
Inspired in boyhood by a goldsmith father, Jose Marin undertook jewellery training at the impressive age of thirteen in his home city of Valencia, Spain. From these auspicious beginnings flourished a master craftsman with a passion for manipulating the most vibrant and challenging materials. History and modernity entwine in joyful harmony throughout Jose’s work, as architectural titanium forms meet delicately baroque twists of silver and gold. Jose teaches jewellery-making at EASD Valencia (Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de València), Spain’s first school to implement a Bachelor of Jewellery degree.
Julia deVille’s work is informed by a fascination with the acceptance of death expressed in Memento Mori jewellery of the 15th to 18th centuries and Victorian Mourning jewellery. Julia studied at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE and has also completed a taxidermy mentorship. Her work is characterised by the elegant combination of these fields and ideas and has been extensively exhibited in Australia as well as in the USA and Europe. Julia employs taxidermy as a celebration of life and sees it as the preservation of something beautiful. Julia’s work is designed to serve as contemporary Memento Mori—a reminder of mortality. Julia uses traditional precious and semi-precious metals and gems and occasionally materials that were once living. In examining mortality, her work incorporates motifs that encourage viewers and wearers to identify with their own fate and challenge a prevalent culture that obsessively plans the future: forget an unknowable tomorrow and instead embrace the present.
Since graduating in 2006 from RMIT’s Fine Arts department with a degree in Gold & Silversmithing, Julia Storey has established a boutique jewellery studio in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, and has exhibited both throughout Australia and internationally. Her practice is influenced by natural, organic textures, executed with traditional techniques. She finds particular inspiration in the textures of beaches, oceans, and aquatic life but also in the varied craft techniques of the jeweller, and in traditional precious materials like gold alloys, diamonds and other gemstones.
Laura Eyle’s work is a reflection of her approach to life. Each piece she makes is an adventure strewn with surprises: little worlds waiting to be explored. Embracing adventure is a central part of Laura’s life and her making practice. Her most recent experience involved relocating to the remote Dampier Peninsula to work at Australia’s oldest operating South Sea Pearl Farm. In 2013 Laura crossed the Nullarbor to embrace desert life and work in the largest open pit gold mine in Australia. These explorations imbue her practice with a strong sense of respect for her materials. Laua has two BAs in Fine Arts from RMIT (Painting and Gold & Silversmithing); a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne; Adv Dip in Engineering (Jewellery) from NMIT; plus business management and training qualifications, leading her full circle back to TAFE where she is now teaching.
Liv Boyle’s practice is testament to an artist’s ability to draw meaning from materials. For her, these meanings can be deeply personal—rooted in memories from a rural upbringing—or more broadly artistic, evoking the history of sculpture and personal adornment. Liv was born and raised in New Zealand, the culture and landscape of which is indelibly tied to her work. Having studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) at the University of Auckland, and an Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (Jewellery) at NMIT in Melbourne, Liv’s work has now been exhibited throughout Australia and in Japan. It employs cattle bone, horn and ebony set in silver with accents of yellow gold. In this jewellery there is a warmth that lends itself naturally to the body. These are bones, and this is horn, that could find a place in Pacific adornment from centuries past, or on her grandfather’s mantle, a modest hunter’s dusty relic. She approaches these materials with a maker’s tender touch and a sculptor’s aesthetic nous, shearing away what is unnecessary to reveal something honest and beautiful.
Melinda Young is fascinated by the potential for unexpected narrative, finding inspiration in architecture, the landscape, and her everyday surroundings. She takes delight the colours and textures she encounters on her travels through life and this is reflected in her work. Exploring her culturally rich environment is a constant creative stimulus for a maker who is attracted to the tiny details – the patina and beauty of the everyday. Melinda has a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, she has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas since 1997, her work is held in public collections in Australia and Norway has been included in numerous publications. In addition to her jewellery practice Melinda engages in work as a university lecturer, curator, writer and workshop convenor.
Amulets, talismans and fetishes influence Natalia Milosz-Piekarska’s work: our innate attraction to, and subsequent projection of belief, trust, power and ritual onto certain jewellery pieces and objects. The exploration of this idea began when Natalia initially studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University after having studied a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) at Monash University. Since then, she has lectured at RMIT University and taken part in exhibitions at e.g.etal, Craft Victoria and Object Gallery. In 2011, with the support of the British Council and the Ian Potter Cultural Fund, Natalia undertook an internship in London with contemporary jeweller, Scott Wilson. As well as employing an eclectic range of materials and techniques in her contemporary jewellery, Natalia adopts an intuitive approach that embraces the serendipitous and the experimental. She is inspired by the animist notion that inanimate objects can be imbued with a spirit and she explores the relationship that we build with certain pieces of jewellery, as they become a point of reassurance and comfort, guidance and contemplation.
Since 1998, Phoebe Porter has been developing her intimate knowledge of materials, process and craftsmanship. Working primarily with titanium, stainless steel and aluminium, she successfully combines industrial materials and processes with the refined hand skills of a craftsperson. Each of Phoebe’s designs is refined to its necessary elements, often using a mechanism as a starting point, which then becomes integral to the design. Phoebe’s deep understanding of the innate properties of her chosen materials allows her to exploit their characteristics to best perform their chosen function – the spring and fit of a clasp, rigidity and weight of a bracelet, lightness of an earring and suppleness of a necklace. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at ANU, Phoebe has exhibited extensively across Australia as well as in Japan, Germany and the UK. Her work has been acquired for a number of public collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.
Sarah Heyward’s work is an exploration of our perception of the world and our selves within it. She finds inspiration in cosmic landscapes, the natural world and the randomness and asymmetry of the everyday. Her work is angular and bold, but at the same time it is understated with a subtle colour palette. Sarah’s work is influenced and formed by the spontaneity of traditional techniques, namely fusion and reticulation. Often her work fuses different metals such as blackened silver and gold through heating the metals until the surface ‘swims’ and becomes one piece. The results are controlled but unpredictable, they have a mercurial quality referencing far away galactic landscapes dotted with sparkling stars.
Vikki Kassioras has studied a Certificate of Jewellery Design and Manufacture at Box Hill TAFE and a Bachelor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University. Her carefully crafted work draws on her heritage and her beliefs. The aesthetic qualities of Vikki’s pieces resonate with a simplicity that is immediately captivating, honouring the very personal source of inspiration. Vikki has an interest in archaeology, classical mythology and archetypal symbols. She often uses the ancient gold working techniques of fusing and granulation. For Vikki, bonding metal on a molecular level speaks to the potential for purity that exists within jewellery. The uneven and textured surfaces of her pieces are the result of an array of processes, giving this contemporary jewellery the feeling of being a recently discovered artefact. Vikki’s work incorporates stories that help us understand our place in the world, as well as the human condition.
e.g.etal is a Melbourne gallery that represents and supports Australia’s thriving contemporary jewellery design movement. Established in 1998, e.g.etal maintains a passionate commitment to contemporary jewellery. The gallery now represents over 60 Australian and New Zealand jewellery artists and designers, with occasional international guests. The constantly evolving collection is an inspiring selection of contemporary jewellery conceived and made by individual designers. e.g.etal seeks to promote the essence of contemporary jewellery: a practice defined by considered research, conceptual ingenuity and intrepid technical diligence that challenges and delights, looks to the past and forges into the future. A treasured piece of jewellery has relevance and meaning for a lifetime and beyond. These works are future heirlooms that will be handed down, across and up the generations. At e.g.etal each piece is unique, but each is alike: carefully conceived, beautifully crafted and sincerely passed on.
