Portfolio GX

Gail McCullough/23/Aspiring Designer-Maker

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Mist at dusk

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Cocoon inspired 3D print//2016

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Fields around home//2016

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Lasercut Organza//2016

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First lasercut//2015

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Rust dyeing//2016

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Hedgerows & Focus

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Drawings and experimentation in my personal sketchbook. My grandmothers garden and song lyrics are a big inspiration.

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Theme: Collection

Photos from my sketchbook of a collection of keys. Looking particularly at the form of the keys and shadow.

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Textile experimentation, using the free hand function on the sewing machine, mixed fabrics and wire.

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I wanted to explore the theme further by experimenting with how the keys could be grouped together using different techniques and materials: crochet and paper, as well as making keys out of colourful fimo clay.

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The link between communication and jewellery

Can something decorative tell stories? People are rarely aware of jewellery as an effective mode of communication. What has become known as ‘Narrative jewellery’ where a wearable object constructed by an author can communicate a message through a wearer to a viewer.

Bernhard Schobinger: a Swiss jeweller born in 1946 Zurich. After art school he went on to have a four year apprenticeship with a famous jeweller. At the age of twenty-two he set up his own gallery and workshop. At the age of sixty-seven he still lives in Switzerland with a family and continues to make his jewellery as well as lecture.

Schobinger has often been referred to as a great contemporary jewellery designer, “one of the most forcefully expressive, critical and aesthetically inspiring contemporary exponents of his art”. Though a practised gold/silversmith often the main component and always the main vocal point of hisj ewellery are the items he finds which range from bottlenecks and saw blades to screws and nails.

These objects useless, used up, destroyed, damaged and ultimately discarded remnants of people that we encounter each day. His process of making jewellery begins with gathering- collecting and keeping these items others would regard as rubbish from different cultures not just his own and then found uses for them; a process that allowed him to create pieces with layered meaning and essentially a message.

But what gives these thrown-away items meaning? A message? The curtain hoops, the nails, the fishing wire etc. have lived with us, been used, cherished and disregarded. What he wants us to realise is that each of these objects have a history of their own and he makes jewellery from and with these histories: “The history in the material is a kind of accumulation of irrational values… if it is a piece from your family- there is heritage, the spirit of your family is inside the piece, it is like a fetish".

An article by Elizabeth Goring titled ‘Jewellery and Communication: Breaking the code’ has many points on communication in jewellery it says that communication implies dialogue or at least the possibility of conveying an idea to one or others, it requires the viewer to come close to understand the makers original intention. This is not to be confused with expression which doesn’t depend on the response of the instead it is an outlet.The message or dialogue that Schobingers jewellery brilliantly conveys is one as well as the personal history of the items. Schobinger was highly influenced by the society and politics of his time as well as history. Often the message behind his pieces comes in the form of social criticism. To have some context: Schobinger truly began his career in the 1960s against a backdrop of rebellious youth, pop culture and student revolts. Vitally a time filled with non-conformist attitude that naturally had an impact on Schobingers stance with his jewellery. This political/social context is vital to his work; his raw materials being detritus of a wasteful consumer society.

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Found items! a mix of natural and man-made. Beach-combing is a favourite hobby so this was a very natural material selection in the jewellery and silversmithing module.

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Remember scoobies? A craze for girls about a decade ago, well I enjoyed them alot and found using similar techniques helpful when creating the jewellery pieces in this series.

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Mixed media pieces: shells, glass, ceramic, copper, merino wool, wire and leather. This was definitely one of my favourite projects as I was able to experiment with different materials (especiallyy with the copper and the blow torch!) and techniques. The following artists were a major inspiration in the final outcomes of this project:

Iris Bodemer: http://www.irisbodemer.de/main.php?siteid=7&lang=E&AktuelleSeite=2

Alexander Calder: http://www.calder.org/work/by-category/jewelry

Rebecca Hannon: http://rebeccahannon.com/pages/jewelry/camino/camino-3.html

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Some examples of  studies I made in Life drawing class.