Kelly Jean Conroy

Jewellery Style

It can be said that Conroy creates organic contemporary jewellery with many of her pieces that are organic representational, reflecting images and motifs found in nature. She also incorporates actual natural organic materials into her works. Many of Conroy’s wearable jewellery pieces consist of sketches of birds and flowers that are etched onto metal discs, stones, enamelled copper discs and mother of pearl shell which she sets into frames of blackened silver to form necklaces, earrings and rings (Lark & Key, n.d.) . She also creates contemporary pieces that are made for exhibitions and galleries. These artistic jewellery pieces consist of fragments of bone, eggshell, dried foliage, dead bodies of birds and small mammals and pierced elements in metal (Boston Voyager, 2018). She combines these elements with blackened silver and brightly coloured gemstone beads, discs of etched enamel, metal, shell and flat shards of gemstone slices (Boston Voyager, 2018). Conroy sources all of her design elements from her childhood memories and finds it important that the motifs of nature used in her designs have a personal significance to her (Conroy, n.d.).

Pictured below is an image of one of Conroy’s works where she has laser-etched hand-drawn images onto faces of mother of pearl.

Figure 2 Conroy, K., Neckpiece. [ONLINE]²

The Beauty of Death

Beauty of Death

Conroy uses imagery of flora and fauna in her jewellery to express her “ideas about the cycle of life and the beauty and sadness in death” (Conroy, n.d.). She creates jewellery pieces that contain the actual dried bodies of dead animals with stones and pierced out motifs of flowers and butterflies. In doing this, Conroy creates ornate arrangements that help to “beautify” and break the taboos and fears surrounding the idea of death (Conroy, n.d.). Conroy uses jewellery that is worn on the “outer layer” as a reflection of her innermost feelings and emotions surrounding the idea of death and the intricate cycles of life (Conroy, n.d.).

Below is a photograph of a neckpiece that Conroy made using the dried-out body of a bird.

Figure 7 – Conroy, K., Neckpiece.
[ONLINE]⁷

Motifs, Images and Objects

Motifs, Images and Objects

Conroy uses imagery of plants flowers and animals in her contemporary artworks. She focusses on one single motif and repeats that same image in different shapes and sizes in one single jewellery piece to create a collage neckpiece or ring, sometimes she repeats similar motifs across several of her pieces (Boston Voyager, 2018).

Below are three images of Conroy’s works, in the first image she has repeated a butterfly motif several times in one piece, in the second and third pieces she has repeated the butterfly motif as well as the black flowers made from oxidised sterling silver to create a sculptural collage.

Conroy also uses floral motifs in her wearable pieces where she reflects hand-drawn images of flowers and plants on flat discs of metal, enamel, shell or stone (Boston Voyager, 2018) which she then pierces or etches on to create a sense of negative space.

Below is an image of one of her ‘wearable’ pieces that consist of one single element (Conroy, n.d.). This is an example of how contemporary jewellers can create wearable studio pieces that stem from their contemporary creations.

Figure 3 – Conroy, K., Neckpiece.
 [ONLINE]³

Figure 4 – Conroy, K., Neckpiece. [ONLINE]⁴

Figure 5 – Conroy, K., Neckpiece. [ONLINE]⁵

Figure 6 – Conroy, K., Neckpiece. [ONLINE]⁶

First Position

First Position

Independent from the body is the first position that an object may take on. This does not speak about the actual position of the object but rather the role that it plays in the relationship with the body (Astvalk, Broadhead, Derrez 2005:18). Jewellery pieces in the first position are worn as a separate entity to the body that serves purposes none other than decoration and aesthetics. This type of jewellery is worn on the body, but the body has no engagement with the jewellery piece (Astvalk, Broadhead, Derrez 2005:18).



Pictured below is a Neckpiece by Kelly Jean Conroy that forms part of her 'wearable' collection that is for sale to the public.

Conroy, C., Wearable Neckpiece

Silhouette Neckpiece

In the last week I also worked on the Segments of Gooseberry plant silhouettes that was inspired by Kelly Jean Conroy's neckpiece which is made up of outlines and silhouettes of twigs, flowers and butterflies. Conroy uses these images in her work as they form part of her childhood memories. I think in a way,  this is a a form of self reflection, as she states in her bio that an item of jewellery is a " tangible object to be worn on one’s outer layer  " and that deep emotion, sorrow associated with death in Conroy's case,  is something that is present in our inner most layers. She uses jewellery to bring out her inner most emotion in the form of tangeable objects. The images from her childhood have become representations or symbols of her emotions associated with death.

Segments of Silhouettes

In a way, my idea of the work that I am creating is also similar to that of Conroy's not just visually but also conceptually. I use imagery of nature seen around me as symbols to represent the current phase of my life and the emotions/feelings/happenings that occur within this period of time. When I have fully completed this piece I will understand the full meaning behind it. For now, the silhouette images of one Gooseberry plant taken at different angles  represent the different areas of my life. the images are made up of one plant, but at different perspectives, just like my one life that is made up of many aspects. My Btech, my work, my family, my relationship and my social life. All these together shape the way that I see the world and how I think.

Kelly Jean Conroy

Kelly Jean Conroy

Is an enthusiastic metalsmith and teaches in Massachusetts, America. She makes contemporary and conceptual pieces as well as wearable studio jewellery pieces that she sells online. All of her pieces have some sort of organic influence to them. Many of her pieces are representational to objects found in nature and others are made out of natural objects such as bones, dried flowers and dead animals.
Conroy’s work consists of sketches of birds and flowers that are etched onto metal and shell. she also creates neckpieces that consists of fragments of bone, dead bodies of birds and pierced elements in metal. Conroy sources all of her design elements from her childhood memories, and finds it important that the motifs of nature used in her designs have a personal significance to her.

 I am drawn to her aesthetic style as well as the deeper conceptual meaning behind her work and how she uses the motifs found in nature that are associated with her childhood memories as a form of self reflection. 

Conceptually, Conroy uses these elements to express her “ideas about the cycle of life and the beauty and sadness in death”. She creates jewellery pieces that beautify and break the taboos and fears surrounding the idea of death. Conroy uses her work as a reflection of her inner most feelings and emotions surrounding the idea of death. I want to Use nature nature as a representation or symbol of my personal life and the emotions and ideas associated with the happenings therein.

I feel that my work relates to Conroy’s work to an extent because my jewellery reflects my personal ideas about life and me as a person. I also use elements that represent memories and significant moments in my life. My aesthetics also reflect nature as I create jewellery items that are representational to nature.

Organic Jewellery

Organic Jewellery

When the term organic jewellery is heard, a number of things jump to the mind of what this might be as there are several types of organic jewellery that exist in the world of contemporary jewellery. When looking at the Virtual Gallery of Contemporary Jewellery’s paper on Organic Jewellery, it can be seen that there are several reasons why jewellers use nature as inspiration. The first type of jewellery that I looked at was jewellery that is physically made out of an organic (decomposable) object. The use of a natural object can be significant in expressing metaphors or narrative ideas such as: the sensitivity of nature, issues involving the destruction of nature caused by man, to showcase the specific natural beauty found in a specific place or region or the organic item may have a religious or cultural meaning if worn in jewellery form. The second type of organic jewellery is an item of jewellery that is made out of a non-organic material but mimics the forms and shapes of nature in a realistic way to show the unique beauty of nature or to express a metaphor or narrative idea. The third type of organic jewellery is jewellery that is made out of a non-organic material in forms found in nature but it is not done in a realistic manner. These natural forms are inspired by nature but are simplified to create only a hint of nature to create a more aesthetic object, to make an object more comfortable or wearable or like the above mentioned, to express a metaphor or narrative idea.

Neckpiece by: Kelly Jean Conroy Bone, Copper Silk
An example of organic jewellery (artist using actual organic material)

Brooch by: Sally Grant Sterling Silver, Vitreous enamel
An example of organic jewellery (artist using organic forms and made with inorganic materials)