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