Wayfaring through jewellery practice

Presented at All Hands on Deck, a cross-disciplinary symposium

University of Technology, Gadigal/Sydney

19-21 July 2023

Select here for the paper including slides from the presentation

Select here for the All Hands on Deck presentation recordings. The recording of my presentation ‘Wayfaring through jewellery practice’ is included in the session: Designing and Making in Times of Crisis: 18:06-31:54

Abstract

This paper examines narratives of time and place in contemporary jewellery practice through the concept of wayfaring by drawing on Tim Ingold’s ideas about making, movement and materiality (2011, 2013, 2015). I am interested in the notion of wayfaring for signalling a slower tempo of material-making and a processual journey that is reflective, intuitive, and open-ended. Wayfaring provides a poetic means to conceptually frame the measured and incremental pace of my jewellery practice and a search for connections to place. Ingold’s ideas about walking as enabling closer observation and engagement with the material world are applied to the context of the jewellery studio and to the processes involved in metalwork.

My analysis refers to jewellery and vessel objects presented in two solo exhibitions, New Terrain in an Old World (2017) at Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre and The Stream of Time (2022) at Woollahra Gallery. In making the objects for these exhibitions I reflect on synergies between craft skill, materiality, movement, time, and place. Aside from referring to jewellery examples, that move with the body when worn, I also focus on small cylindrical vessels that are essentially static forms made from thin sheets of metal, encircling and enclosing space. The metal surfaces of these craft objects are perceived as spatial planes analogous to landscapes. My work investigates how jewellery and vessel forms can elicit sensorial encounters representative of immersive experiences in the landscape. Facilitated by methods of repetition and iteration, time is rendered in the metal surfaces through artisanal techniques to convey multi-perspectival views of the land and to highlight the temporality of jewellery practice.