Sharon Church

Jewellery Style

Sharon Church creates contemporary pieces that mimic the natural world and that use actual organic materials as part of the design (Church, 2012). Church incorporates carved wood, bone and horn into many of her pieces. See figure 18 below

Figure 18 - – Church, S., (2016) J. Organic Brooch, 
Carved and Dyed Pear Wood. Sterling Silver,
 , Nickel Silver, Diamonds. [ONLINE] 18

She also uses techniques such as casting, forging, enamelling and setting to create jewellery that is organic in form as well as in material (Church, 2016). Many of her pieces resemble leaves, pods, plants flowers, and animals such as insects and amphibians and some of her pieces are more abstract resembling spheres or elongated curved forms (Church, 2012). Church creates her jewellery pieces to form metaphors of her personal life. 

Design process

Design process

similarly to Beth Legg and Victoria Walker, Church also relies on the natural environment around her for design inspiration (Church, 2012). Church goes on walks and retrieves interesting objects and materials that are useful to the construction of her pieces. Church also creates drawings of the items that she collects to aid her in her design process (Church, 2016).
The below jewel that Church created seems to resemble a type of seed pod.

Figure 19 – Church, S., (2000). 
Medal For a Bleeding Heart,
 Commemorative Brooch [ONLINE] 19

Sharon Church: Metaphors of life

Metaphors of Life

Church draws inspiration from nature because she is fascinated by the intricate cycles of life, death, decay and restoration that are present in the natural world (Church, 2012). She uses these cycles to create metaphors in her jewellery that speak about emotional events in her life. “It takes a lifetime to make a piece because each one reflects back on my life’s experience” (Church, 2016). She also uses images, motifs and objects found in nature to create symbols that reflect on concepts and thoughts that intrigue her. “I found that nature offered up metaphors for what I was experiencing, in ways that were beautiful” (Church, 2016). Church also creates jewellery pieces that speak about her personal struggles using nature as a vehicle to convey a message “it was the death of my first husband, Andy, that unleashed my connection with nature that has characterized my making ever since. I found that nature offered up metaphors for what I was experiencing, in ways that were beautiful” (Church, 2016).

Figure 20 – Church, S. Neckpiece. [ONLINE] 20

Victoria Walker

Design Process

Victoria Walker creates kinetic pendants that resemble seedpods and flowers. Each of these pendants have a special symbolic meaning connected to the type of flower or pod that the pendant resembles (Walker, 2018). Walker goes out into her environment for design inspiration. On walks, walker collects interesting flowers, plants and seedpods which she stores in her studio (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017). After collecting design matter, she disassembles each structure so that she can observe the construction of the object (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017). Walker also uses the matter that she has collected to create drawings to help her in the construction of prototype pieces (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017). After she has created working prototypes in copper, she then creates final pieces from precious metals (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017). These techniques help her to accurately observe and understand the natural object that she wishes to recreate in metal (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017).

Pictured below are images of Walker's making process, First Walker will sketch the plant used for inspiration, she will then create a copper prototype of the jewel: 

Figure 11 – Walker, V. Constable, N., Victoria Walker
Jewellery, Frame: 01:13. [ONLINE]¹¹

Figure 10 – Walker, V. Constable, N., Victoria
Walker Jewellery, Frame: 01:00. [ONLINE]¹⁰

Metaphor and Movement

Metaphor and movement

Walker says that her jewellery is not only sentimental to her as a maker, but they also, become sentimental to the wearer as her customers often purchase her jewellery as they serve as reminders of emotional events in people’s lives. Customers may purchase a flower pendant of the same species of flowers that they had at their weddings to act as reminders of their special day (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017). Walkers pieces have a precious quality to them, not just because they are made with precious metals but because they create a sense of sentimentality when the beauty, that is kept hidden inside the closed flower locket, is suddenly and surprisingly revealed when opened to an unsuspecting eye (Walker, n.d.). Walker creates "the idea that sometimes the most precious and treasured elements are hidden beneath the surface " creating a beautiful metaphor that describes the human soul (Walker, n.d.).

Walker, V. Woman and Child Viewing Sunflower
 Locket. Kinetic Flower Pendant, Sterling Silver,
 18ct Gold and diamond. [ONLINE]

Motifs and Techniques

Motifs and Techniques

walker creates moveable flower pendants, earrings and rings out of sterling silver and gold and even though she uses precious metals in her pieces, her style of work is organic as she mimics the forms and textures of flowers in a realistic way, that specific type of flowers can be recognized(Walker, n.d.) . Many of her jewellery pieces are made to look and move, like small scaled-down versions of the plants that she uses for her inspiration. 

Her most popular pieces are kinetic pieces that resemble various species of flowers that open and close when manipulated by hand or when the body moves (Walker, n.d.). Pictured below are Walker's kinetic lockets:

Figure 12 – Walker, V. Sunflower Locket. 
Kinetic Flower Pendant, Sterling Silver, 
18ct Gold and diamond. [ONLINE]12

Figure 13 - – Walker, V. Sunflower Locket. 
Kinetic Flower Pendant, Sterling Silver, 
18ct Gold and diamond. [ONLINE]13

Walker's kinetic lockets are hand made using the techniques of piercing, doming, drilling and soldering (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017).Walker also uses various metals to recreate the different colours and hues found in nature, including silver,  and gold and they are buffed and sanded to have a rough, non-shiny finish to resemble the plant of inspiration (Victoria Walker Jewellery, 2017).

Figure 14 - – Walker, V. Thistle Locket.
 Kinetic Pod Pendant, Sterling Silver,
 18ct Gold and diamond. [ONLINE]14

.As a contrast, some of her pieces are decorated with small shiny stones or pearls that allow her pieces to appear more delicate and precious (Walker, n.d.). Although Walker’s jewellery is contemporary in style, because of the small scale of her designs, they become easily wearable as intimate keepsake pieces (Walker, n.d.).

Below are process pictures to show how her kinetic flowers are assembled:

Figure 15 – Walker, V.,(2018) Victoria Walker Jewellery, 
Frame: 00:10. [ONLINE]15

Figure 16– Walker, V.,(2018) Victoria Walker 
Jewellery, Frame: 00:12. [ONLINE]16

Helen Shirk

Design Style

Shirk is known to make jewellery that is worn on the body as well as sculptural vessels that adorn a room, such as bowls, vases and other hollow-ware (Keaffaber, 1990). Shirk has not always been inspired by the natural world and only in her recent years has she started introducing a more organic style in her works. “Her work gradually shifted from the cool sleek silver objects she made in the ’70s to a more personal approach and larger scale through the ’90s” (Psfa.sdsu.edu, 2019) In earlier years, Shirk’s focus was on making interesting formed vessels in bright colours using various techniques such as repousse, chasing, etching, hammering and colouring using different patina recipes. In more recent years, Shirk shifted in making jewellery using mild steel sheets which she intricately pierced out and coloured to resemble silhouettes of plants and layering them to create false depth (Psfa.sdsu.edu, 2019). Shirk's works are made to express personal metaphors that she experiences in life. 

Figure 8 – Shirk, H., (2014). Neckpiece
Number 7. Neckpiece, Oxidised Mild
 Steel and China Paint. [ONLINE]⁸

Helen Shirk Metaphors in Metal

Metaphors in Metal

Shirk’s older works; Such as her vessels; are made to reflect on the emotional, joyous and painful aspects of her life in a way that is metaphoric of the processes present in the natural world. “Observation of the inevitable change in the natural world makes me feel calmer about what is happening to me” (Sanford, 1994).  Shirk states that she uses the growth patterns found in nature to represent the personal challenges that she faces. Some of the metaphors of life that she portrays in her work are that of new growth, strength, fragility, beauty and death (Sanford, 1994).

Figure 9 – Shirk,H.,(1993). Sustaining Spirit VI. Vessel,
 brass, copper, patina, Prismacolor. [ONLINE]⁹

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

Emotional Connection to Place

Emotional Connection to Place

The concept behind Legg’s work focusses on the emotional connection that people have with a place which is known as “topophilia” (Legg 2012:46). Legg creates jewellery pieces that speak about the emotional connection that she has with her home town and she does this by making jewellery pieces that resemble landscapes that she photographs while taking walks. Legg explains that feelings of strong emotion can be experienced after an external sensory stimulus or through an internal interpretation of a memory that is sparked by an object we encounter (Legg 2012:36). The textures, forms and colours that Legg incorporates in her pieces evoke the same emotions that she experienced in a place (Damasio 1999:58).

 Legg, B (2013). Sketchbook Pages Drawings Page 180 [ONLINE]

Walking as a Research Tool

 Walking as a Research Tool

In Legg’s research paper, The Materiality of Place, she speaks about the importance that walking has on a creative individual and how it aids as a research tool allowing us to better understand the environment and to expand our knowledge thereof. Legg being a designer that relies on the natural environment for inspiration often takes walks to forage for photographs or interesting tangible objects that she uses to create pieces of jewellery (Legg 2012:139). According to Legg, walking “is comprehension of how both urban and natural spaces can be moulded by different eventualities: the different light during the day, the weather, the memories evoked by a certain atmosphere, noise or smell, and the emotional state of mind of the individual.” (Legg 2012:59)

Legg, B (2016). Brooch, [ONLINE]

Beth Legg

Beth Legg: Jewellery Style

Beth Legg creates organic contemporary and studio pieces that are made from a variety of materials including sterling silver, wood, stone, pearls, horn and objects that she finds in the natural environment around her. Legg creates her jewellery pieces to resemble the landscapes and scenery in the area of Northern Scotland where she lives. Legg often takes walks as a form of research in her environment to capture images of the scenery that she uses for design inspiration (Legg, 2012:58), she then creates pieces of jewellery to resonate elements within the captured image and when placed side by side, the jewellery and the captured image create a beautiful juxtaposition. Legg mimics the textures, forms, silhouettes and colours of the sceneries around her (Legg, n.d.) to create jewellery pieces that have a reflection of the emotions that she experiences in her environment (Legg, 2012:194). Many of her pieces appear organic because of their form resembling objects found in nature, such as twigs, pods and leaves. Other objects have an organic hint to them due to the surface texture present resembling objects found in nature (Legg, n.d.).

 

Figure 1 – Legg, B (2009). River’s Mouth. 

Neckpiece, Oxidised Sterling Silver, 
Garnet, 18ct Yellow Gold [ONLINE]1

Beth Legg Design Inspiration

Design inspiration

Legg uses whole landscapes present in her environment as design inspiration. Legg Creates jewellery to mimic landscapes in her living environment (Legg 2012:139).  An example of this is the neckpiece which she made to resemble a pile of logs that she captured. Below you can see the captured images forming juxtaposition next to the final piece of jewellery allowing us to see her deep-rooted connection with the place that she lives in (Legg, n.d.):

Text Box: Figure 1 – Legg, B (2009). 
River’s Mouth. Neckpiece, Oxidised 
Sterling Silver, Garnet, 18ct Yellow 
Gold [ONLINE]1

Symbols from nature

Symbols from nature

The natural world with its “intricate cycles of growth, death, decay and renewal” (Quickenden 2000) provide us with many images and motifs that can be used as symbols, metaphors or representations of the happenings in our own lives.

Below is a piece that was made by Sharon Church, titled Envy, she uses images found in nature to create a piece that is symbolic (complex Ideas through Simple Imagery). Church uses the images of a fresh bud and new leaves increasing in size to create a metaphor of the transitory nature youth (Quickenden 2000).

Figure 7 – Church, S., (1997). Envy. 
Neckpiece. [ONLINE]⁶

The Metaphor of Metal

The Metaphor of Metal

The ‘unseen’ or ‘magical’ ability of smiths to turn rough nuggets of metal into magnificent items of jewellery has become metaphorical to creation and the unobserved processes of nature. “The first alchemists employed metals to perform a physical transformation of matter that effected a metaphorical alteration in the witness” (Rabinovitch, 2002).   This has created a connection between making, matter and meaning, where objects that were handcrafted possessed metaphorical properties and deeper meanings, which is still present in creations made today. (Rabinovitch, 2002)

Over time, this intimate relationship between the metal and the smith has transformed jewellery making from a craft into an art, allowing the smith to make significant objects that have artistic expression, conceptual ideas, or become a medium of self-expression (Rabinovitch, 2002).

Pictured below is an image of the copper gooseberry pods that I created. I use these pods in my jewellery pieces to develop metaphors for my life and the thoughts that I have. 

Gooseberry Pods in Oxidised Copper

Movement Jewellery

Movement in Nature

It is very difficult to imagine the natural world without movement. Leaves and flower petals blowing in the wind, butterfly wings flapping and the rising and setting of the sun are all examples of actual movement found in nature. Other forms of movement are more subtle such as the changing of the seasons, the growth of plants and animals and their death and decay. Movement can be seen in nature in many instances, not just in its physical form but also in its more metaphorical form when observing natural processes. “The representation of vitalism is an identification with nature and biological forces”. (Quickenden 2000). Movement incorporated into a jewellery piece can aid the piece in appearing 'lifelike' or alive (Walker n. d.) and the element of movement can be brought about in many ways. (Quickenden 2000).

Ryan, J., Pendant, 18ct gold and vitreous enamel [Online]

Types of Movement Jewellery

Types of Movement Jewellery

Some artists create instrument like or mechanical jewellery that moves with the aid of a power source and motor. (Quickenden 2000) Others create jewellery objects that are made up of parts that are connected with small hinge systems that allow a more subtle form of movement to occur when the wearer moves his or her body (Quickenden 2000). A more virtual form of movement can be created on a completely static object through the use of materials that reflect light or with the use of lines that create the illusion of movement (Quickenden 2000).

Below are two images of one of Victoria Walker’s kinetic lockets. The lockets open and close when manipulated by the wearer. The two images compare the lockets in open and closed stages. The daisy lockets below form “a life-like representation of nature in motion” (Walker n.d.).

Figure 5 – Walker, V., Daisy. Daisy Pendant in
 Sterling Silver and Gold. [ONLINE]⁴

Figure 6  – Walker, V., Daisy. Daisy Pendant in
 Sterling Silver and Gold. [ONLINE]⁵

Representational Organic Jewellery

Representational Organic Jewellery

The second type of organic jewellery is an item of jewellery that is made out of a non-organic material such as metal, acrylic or plastic and it is made to echo nature  in the shape, form, texture or colour of the jewel but also in the way that the jewel moves or sounds when worn (Quickenden 2000). There is representational organic jewellery that is made to resemble an object found in nature in a representational manner where the jewellery gives a hint of nature through the use of organic curved edges or lines, texture or form or movement (Quickenden 2000).

The image below shows a necklace that is made by Beth Legg, the neckpiece is made from oxidized silver and 14ct gold and it mimics mussels or seedpod like forms (Legg, 2019).

Figure 4 – Legg, B., (2009). 
Six Whins. Neckpiece, Oxidised 
Sterling Silver, 18ct Yellow Gold.
 [ONLINE]³