Jewellery and Metal Design

Visitors anticipating small cases of tight, traditional jewellery will be surprised by this very varied show, vibrating with a multi-media, interdisciplinary joyousness.

Arguably Angelia Santangeli is the only student showing Silversmithing (as opposed to jewellery ) in her smallware, and her unified ‘cakery’ of ceramics and graphics show that her fun mix is destined for things beyond the jewellery world. Emma Thorogood’s   bold op-art pieces cumulate in a particularly fine espresso pot brooch.  Next, Sheila Roussel’s evocative “hidden from view” treasured pearls, lace, photos and oxidized silver sit tiny and beautiful against bigger-scale paper and fabric work, her textile experience suiting these finely-wrought pieces.

Smart materials, thermo-chromatic dyes, screen-printed metals and urban imagery define Beth Spowart’s excitingly futuristic, interactive, yet highly wearable work. An equally experimental fragility of silver-sprayed twigs, cast porcelain plant pots and pierced unit-construction shapes structure Susan MacLeod’s work , which speaks with raw and unrestricted excitement of “intrigue”.

By contrast, Michelle Ho’s airy mesh, and research into traditional Chinese cork carving, combines that ancient craft’s imagery with the precision she craves, using digital processes in spectacularly lovely collars and more. Neighbouring exhibitor, Wing Chan earths Chinese traditions differently in her delicate red thread with silver and oxidized copper and bamboo pieces, created to evoke positive emotions in the wearer. Sayoko Kobayashi looks to the Japanese “wabi-sabi” experience of transience, degradation even, in her beautifully ambiguous work in wood, acrylic and fused glass; Fragile-looking copper pendants might also make covetable box lids.

After all this intricacy, tradition and even finely-honed nostalgia, “big kid” Grant Herron’s wacky pieces  upcycles found objects, blasting through with something entirely different. His passion spills beyond jewellery, leading the viewer to question their  own boundaries.

Another kind of jewellery, designed to interact and change can be seen in Rosie Kimber’s crystal- inspired fluorescent  acrylics . The transformative, disintegrating and luminous qualities of sugar crystals surprise – bold and fun.

Kirstie Snowden’s keepsakes in etched, oxidized frames and wood speak of Victorian mourning jewellery, but these tiny books and frames contain digital, perfectly wearable photo-libraries. Meanwhile Jiaylin Li invites us to continue her brushed ink plant paintings, sitting alongside copper, bark wire and enamel miniatures which evoke haiku in their delicate environmental openness.

Catherine Ritchie’s tiny animal charms (predominantly in oxidized silver) will appeal – their quirky kinetic mechanisms an added joy. Again, it is easy to imagine them in the context of pill-boxes and the like. Contrastingly, Alana Peden raids the science lab for tools, cast in porcelain and part-glazed in a glorious transparent turquoise. She also shows considerable expertise in textile work; her knitted wire necklaces delight  – particularly one containing pearls.

Chloe Henderson’s arrestingly gorgeous display of neckpieces, jarred in water, and the  opulence of her  textured, chunky and delicate pieces again owe much to textile traditions, but work quite differently with casts and etched, oxidized surfaces. A substantial neckpiece is a real highlight. Rebecca Smith’s show mines keepsakes: her grandparents’ love-letters in a feast of frames and tassels.

Katie Petrie’s namesake dishes of moulds and an Einstein quote inspire reticulation, enameled copper and silver, and a creative, highly considered response to Science, capturing the transient and making it permanent.

If there are haiku nearby, Morag Eagleson laces her boots and gives a jeweller’s response to MacCaig country, in a gorgeousness of slate and metal – installations in (Braemar elm) boxes, each skillfully made with its own O.S. grid reference.

Cathy Wang is the deserving winner of a recent Goldsmith’s award. Her Hong Kong home inspires stunningly-made, stylish pieces, deceptive in their precious metal simplicity. Covetable, indeed.

Finally, Rebecca Sarah Black, terming herself a   “bonesmith”  traces the Selkie legend  in controlled, powerful works of bone, knitted wires, and rocks , most especially a super collar, truly redolent of the sea.

Few will love everything here, which is perhaps exactly right. Wander beyond your jewellery comfort zone, and open your senses to a fabulous show!

Beth McDonough