New Designers 2023 Benchpeg Highlights
Highlights of New Designers 2023
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On Friday Benchpeg visited the New Designers show 2023.
With a sparse showing of jewellery and silver specific courses in representation, combined craft courses are clearly becoming a dominant factor in educational pathways.
However, it was great to see strength in many of the jewellery, silver, gold and horology specific course degree shows.
Here are a selection of our found highlights of the show (in no particular order).
Shinta Nakajima
Shinta Nakajima
In an age where ancient symbolism has lost its mysterious power, Shinta Nakajima, has confronted the question, “Why do we decorate?”
In traditional silversmithing, flora has been used along with engraving and chasing techniques as symbols of wishes since ancient times. For instance, the Acanthus pattern was designed in ancient Greece, and it has been treated as a figurative language of vitality ever since. However, through its long development history, it is often pressed into partial decoration with curves and details that differ from the original nature of the acanthus. As Carl Jung said, “The symbol is alive only so long as it is pregnant with meaning” and the acanthus in silversmithing has become a formulaic decoration with forgotten historical significance.
By close observation, Nakajima preserves the beauty of the acanthus in its original form, with the rhythm of the dense foliage, the chips and stains, renewing the symbols meaning, decoration representing and preserving essential the impermanence and vitality of life in the vessel.
Shinta Nakajima
Alice Biolo
Alice Biolo
Under the skin is a collection of brooches developed from the concept of pain and trauma. The brooches become an intent of translating an emotional state into 7 main physical wearable objects, representing different stages of trauma and how most humans process it. The collection is composed of cylindrical shaped silver hollow structures, with a hidden compartment on the inside, a metaphor of the human state, linear and simple on the outside but complex on the inside. In the traditional sense jewellery serves the purpose of conveying certain symbolism or status toward the outside world. In this instance the lack thereof and the simplicity of the design to the eye of the observer creates a special sentiment for the wearer alone. When worn, the wearer can choose to show and share with an audience the back of the brooch, or keeping it for themselves. The collection is an echo of social behaviour encouraged within our society, to show the attractive aspects of ourselves and share those with the world, while we are encouraged to hide those less appealing and possibly hurtful and damaging, keeping our most vulnerable parts to ourselves. Under the skin aims to open a conversation and awareness regarding mental health and how individual but similar humans experience are.
Alice Biolo
Abigail Ellen Pontefract
Abigail Ellen Pontefract
‘Perming Your Ears’ (Basil Fawlty, Fawlty Towers, BBC 1975-1979) is a collection celebrating the ceremony of getting ready. My final collection plays with dichotomy between the intimacy of getting ready and the absurdity of the circus. Links are made between these two entities- stripes to represent highlighted hair and circus tents, shapes mimicking spotlights and the outline of the face. At the centre of my collection, is the hair roller, used as the main symbol of ‘getting ready.’ This object, which would ordinarily be used to make individuals presentable is transformed into an ornament to adorn ourselves. SLS nylon is used for its lightweight property, allowing me to create jewellery on a larger, surreal scale whilst still making it functional.
‘Prêt Pas, Prêt’ is a series of bonnets, modelled on a highlighting cap. Digital manipulation was used to produce a stripes and dots pattern on two of the bonnets, mimicking both the original highlighting cap and roller surfaces. Intimacy is brought into the design by using (unnatural) silk for the remaining two bonnets. The striped interior lining is a concealed element, creating a secret connection between the wearer and the maker (myself).
Abigail Ellen Pontefract
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Ania Sikorska
Ania Sikorska
My artistic approach
Creating jewellery is an art form for me. I think of jewellery as applied art closely related to the human body. Jewellery can arouse emotions and provoke, and I like to think that the jewellery I create is just like that; that it inspires discussions, encourages reflection, attracts attention and promotes values close to me.
My graduate collection
From the beginning of working on my recent Archē (*first principle) collection, I knew that it would be inspired by nature, but I also knew I would be observing nature from a given scientific perspective. Mathematicians agree that nature (and we are a part of it) is a very organised mathematical mechanism, which here and there shows through its randomness and organicity. I find this 'rule' incredibly inspiring and fascinating, and that is why I decided that the shapes and patterns associated with the process of growth and movement: lamellas, spirals and waves would become the axis of the entire collection
My process
When it comes to the methods I use within my practice, I like to combine different techniques. I am fascinated by new technologies and the perspectives they open up. I enjoy designing my models in CAD and printing them with 3D printers; however, I also like sitting at my bench and making handmade jewellery.
Regarding the materials I use to produce my works, I like to ensure they are safe for me, my Clients and the environment (*I work with plant-based resin, recycled silver, found objects etc.) What is unique about my recent collection of earrings is that I used 3D-printed nylon to produce them. SLS nylon is still rarely used in the process of jewellery-making, so I am extremely happy to share the results of my work with this new material, which I hand-dyed using my proprietary methods.
Ania Sikorska
Isabella Bedlington
Isabella Bedlington
Isabella Bedlington
Through my practice, I have considered the role of the afterlife in our earthly existence and contemplated such questions as, is this life an afterlife of a life we have lived before? My visual inspiration began with a jade ring-shaped object called Bi. Bi is an ancient Chinese artefact often used as a burial object to assist the deceased in their journey to the afterlife. For myself, the ideology of an afterlife is routed in time. Lives, how many of them are unknown, pivot around time. The cyclic nature of the torus in my collection represents the cycle of death and rebirth that all material things undergo. Each torus has its own individual story told through intricate patterns and textures. I use the act of meticulously creating each detail repeatedly as a meditation that brings a timelessness to the making process, mirroring the ongoing journey of an afterlife.
Isabella Bedlington
Machi de Waard
Machi de Waard
My name is Machi and I’m a jeweller. I make modernist pieces in silver and gold, sometimes using gemstones. I make my jewellery at my studio in Reading, Berkshire, where I’ve been working for more than 10 years. From January 2010 to December 2011, I was Jeweller in Residence at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell. I am currently doing a Master’s degree in Jewellery & Metal at the Royal College of Art.
I’m a big fan of abstract expressionism and minimalism, so work by artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Yves Klein inspire me. I also find inspiration from the shapes and clean lines in the work of sculptors Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi. Closer to home, though, my whole family is artistic so I can also see creativity in my sister’s knitting or my mom’s painting or my grandmother’s tapestries. I love how you can give the same material to a hundred people to make something and they will all come up with something totally different.
My signature style rotates around simple shapes such as circles, spheres and ovals. I like the perfection and simplicity of a circle. A circle is a minimal shape – it encloses the maximum amount of space with the minimum circumference – which makes it a very neat, efficient shape. In my designs, the gold (or sometimes silver) sphere provides a sense of tension or playfulness by balancing on the curve or peeking out from behind the silver.
Tamzin Scott
Tamzin Scott
This collection explores the ideas of gift giving through crocheting. The patterns from the crochet have been dissected and emulated to look like flower petals. The connection of loops and knots from the crochet symbolises the connecting of people. Flowers are a universal gift and can come in various different forms for various occasions, they are given to loved ones to help communicate human emotions, joy, affection, appreciation and even apologies. This collection is intended as a gift to your loved one and spark these emotions. From these patterns the petals have been assembled together to make flowers. The materials, silver and acrylic have created structure for these pieces to be held together and creates contrast between the soft textiles of crocheting and the organic matter of flowers. These pieces are to be given to people so that when worn, the giver is always present and connected to the wearer.
Susan Garner
Susan Garner
Susan Garner
'Flowers And Decorative Metal Artwork Handmade In Sussex, Inspired By Nature.'
With nature surrounding us, it is hard not to be inspired and the closer you look, the more intrinsically beautiful and unbelievably detailed you discover our world is. It comforts, inspires and enriches our lives. With the natural colour pallet of metals and the possible combinations of working and joining together elements of sheet, wire, rod and tubing. I create component parts which are then connected together into a final finished piece. I liken it to building a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, but one where you design and create all the pieces along the way. Through the use of different silversmithing techniques, I also interlace these constructed elements with the structure and flexibility found in pattern forming and textile designing.
All pieces are handmade by me in my workshop in Sussex. I hope you enjoy my pieces as much as I enjoy designing and making them....
Susan Garner
Susan Garner
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Susan Garner
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