Welfe Bowyer, Jewellery Designer
You can see the architectural influence in the details of WELFE’s work. Crosses and rings look like shapes you’d read about in Fountainhead or some fantastical history. Even his eroded textures bear an element of this fascinating interpretation. A predominantly self-taught jeweller, Welfe Bowyer (originally from New Zealand) is a Melbourne based jewellery designer obsessed with texture and materiality.
His designs are like lost heirlooms, geometries created centuries ago, now re-discovered. Their eroded forms allude to intricately designed geometries from an alternate history.
Enjoy it all before he packs up for Paris never to return.
What attracted you to the concept of ‘gold is the only love’ and how did it inform the result you produced? For me, working in gold is mostly for special occasions such as weddings. Using gold is a direct bi-product of someone's love. So it made sense to work with this material. There was no other choice - there's no substitute for the real thing.
What tools and/or technologies did you utilise in the work process of the piece you created?
The Gold Cap was created by manipulating a wax mould of the Sample bottle cap. The wax was then set in plaster, melted out and replaced with 9ct gold.
As a designer and/or artist is there a particular characteristic that you feel makes your work unique?
Texture and structure. I create strong geometric forms and then apply unique hand made textures that look eroded, corroded and pitted.
Jonathan Zawada said that the most effective way to think about a creative solution is not to think about it at all. Do you agree?
Yes. Go with your first instinct.
Experimentation is a key method Sample Brew uses to break norms both in perception and production. How do you utilise experimentation in your own work?
Each new design is different and I'm not sure how it will come out until it is finished, so every piece for me is an experiment. I experiment with form, texture and materials.
Last but not least, describe Gold Ale in five words or less.
The real thing.
All photos captured by the talented Peter Tarasiuk.
