Sinuosity is a contemporary jewellery design exhibition featuring the work of 6 graduates from the SilverHub one year course 2020/21. Please join us in celebrating their achievements.
Opening Friday 30th July 2021 – 6pm to 9pm
Then Saturday 31st July to Tuesday 3rd August 2021 – 11am to 5pm
Silverhub Studios
40 Ferry Road,
Edinburgh,
EH6 4AE
In accordance with Government guidelines, social distancing measures will be in place. Unless exempt, masks must be worn. Track and trace procedures will be in place and hand sanitiser will be provided.
The East Lothian coastline is rife with juxtaposition, in a state of constant flux. The ebb and flow of the tide makes the beach feel monumental in one hour and intimate in the next. During inclement weather sea is violent and foreboding; on a sunny day it is flat, glassy and inviting. Along the shoreline lie bodies of gannets in varying degrees of decomposition, yet in the distance the rocky outcrop Bass Rock is a noisy, undulating mass, home to one of the northern hemisphere’s largest colony of gannets and seething with life.
This dynamic stretch of coast has been the focus of my visual and material research over the last year, which has culminated in the development of my collection. Through drawing and visual research into native seaweeds and kelps I have been exploring my own instinctive inclination towards natural forms. I have been particularly drawn to the gannets I found cloaked in seaweed and washed up on the beach, and their delicate and sinuous bleached bones have informed the shapes which repeat through my work. This visual and material research led to enamelling becoming a key component in this collection. I have aimed to refer to some of the predominant textures and colours of this stretch of shore by setting overfired pieces alongside glossier elements; a reflection of craggy, barnacle adorned rocks and slicks of wet basalt and plant life.
My work has also been influenced by my interest in the Japanese concept of “ma” or the artistic interpretation of negative space, which permeates Japanese culture, both visually and socially; it can refer to a pause in conversation, the gaps between buildings, the negative space between the trees in traditional ink paintings. I hope that the forms that make up my jewellery pieces, which relate to one another but don’t quite touch, embody some of this essence.
Despite a challenging year, SilverHub has pushed and supported my development as a maker, and imbued me with new skills to allow me to further explore and develop my ideas. I am looking forward to talking what I have learned during the one-year course with me when I begin my Silversmithing & Jewellery degree at Glasgow School of Art in September.
This body of work is a continuation of my previous reflections that chaos is a part of life that cannot be avoided (‘Within chaos, there is calm’, 2020). However, rather than regeneration and growth being stifled by the chaos surrounding it, this work expresses the transience of chaos. Over time, there is always a space created for reflection and growth before the next challenge comes along. I have continued with the colour green in this body of work, reflecting the Chinese belief that green expresses harmony, growth, regeneration, and hope, following a period of my life when I lived there. Rather than use a traditional method of colouring metal such as enamelling or using a patina, I have used graffiti paint. Graffiti and street art is a form of personal and social expression I have always gravitated towards regardless of the city or country within which I find myself. It can tell the story of a community and be both unique and personal to the artist or share a common belief.
Audrey has been offered unconditional offers and direct entry into 2nd year of the Jewellery and Metalsmith Degree courses at Dundee University and Glasgow School of Art.
My inspiration is dominated by the natural world and the symbiotic relationships that exist in the ecosystem such as the interplay between the fungi and plant kingdoms. I am also very interested in how sound can be expressed through drawing and therefore extending the experience of sound in an emotionally evocative way.
I am so pleased that the foundation course was able to continue throughout the pandemic as it has given me a focus during this unusual time. The course has provided me with a creative framework based on visual research, experimentation and design development and has really pushed me creatively to explore my conceptual abilities. The array of techniques that has been taught by esteemed tutors, such as fold forming, chasing and enamelling, has been very exciting and inspiring. SilverHub has provided a wealth of support, technical knowledge and positive critical feedback that has been so invaluable and nourishing for my learning.
Marianne has been offered unconditional offers and direct entry into 2nd year of the Jewellery and Metalsmith Degree courses at Dundee University and Glasgow School of Art.
Stillness & Movement
This collection started with a journey on foot between the two Midlothian villages of Carrington and Temple. An undulating, curving way with hedges and walls, bridges over water, stretches of tall upright trees, tips swaying, others with branches reaching across roof-like. The sounds of movement: footsteps accompanied by conversations, the clicking of bicycle hubs, the hum of tyres on tarmac, the rumble and zoom of cars. I retraced my steps by bicycle and once static elements became blurred.
These pieces represent my impressions of the shapes and sounds of my journey.
The One Year Course has enabled me to expand my skills and learn to distil my creativity. SilverHub has encouraged me to push at my comfort zone of design and representation, and to try out new techniques and materials. When the SilverHub Studio shut in lockdown 2 between January and March 2021 I improved my home workbench and carried on making. But not alone, thanks to Zoom for our group meetings and the one-to-one sessions where ingenuity abounded to solve technical jewellery issues!
I’m looking at options for further study to take my life as a jeweller and maker to the next stage. No concrete decision yet but watch this space!
Hutton’s Section
Hutton’s Section, on Salisbury Crags, is where James Hutton found proof for his theory that heat plays an essential role in the rock formation. This collection is a development of my first year’s work: inspired by my local landscape. Walking, I trace the network of paths on the hill where I collect images in my mind, with my camera, pen, and paper. The craggy bulk of Arthur’s Seat- the volcanic pressures that formed it, the shapes of rocks, the appearance of the exposed faces and the splintering and fracturing to boulders lie behind this collection which features striking interrupted lines, and kinetic pieces.
For the last 2 years, I have been attending the SilverHub Jewellery School Foundation course, exposing me to new techniques, and giving me the benefits of being part of a group of jewellers. The support from Lisa and Jess and my classmates have been very important during the lockdown, helping me keep focused on my making, giving me an escape from some of the pressures of the pandemic. This year has helped me develop my approach in pushing and refining an idea and in distilling the essential elements as a piece develops.
With this exhibition, I am launching as a jewellery maker, and my website to promote my work. Watch this space!
A rollercoaster of a year, with lockdown and life and loss. My work reflects the incongruity of life, the muddle of shape wherever we look; trees in their not always neat, serried ranks; stones and roots protruding from the ground made smooth by the passing of numerous walkers; hills that make their own shape; rocks that keep on rocking; rivers that make their sinuous way through the landscape.
I have played with many different techniques, including enamelling, using plastic, rubber and the fly press to form varying shapes, etching, rolling and of course, soldering.
I am more than grateful to SilverHub for their patience and forbearance.
This collection is dedicated to my beloved mother – adorable, generous, and full of integrity.
Photography by Shannon Tofts