Having studied jewellery design at university level for several years now, I have slowly developed my skills and ideas into creating jewellery pieces that reflect my interests and inspirations. I view jewellery as a fairly loose term, having broken down the barrier of what defines something as jewellery whilst I was completing my art foundation and experimenting in all areas of art and design. The idea that jewellery doesn’t have to strictly conform to common body placements and materials allows for a wider scope of design possibilities and is more freeing to work within. I generally gravitate towards making larger, sculptural body pieces that are more visually engaging than they are practical as a lot of my designs appear fairly conceptual and not for everyday wear. This puts more pressure on the photography of a piece to capture it appropriately, communicating how it can be worn if unclear. I really enjoy the photographic element of a project, the culmination of a whole host of inspirations, designs and development which need to be summed up by an artistic concept in one final photoshoot.
Jemima Wright
Bio
Project Description
Restriction | Liberation – My graduate collection is split into two mini-series, each piece directly contrasting its paired piece. This stems from the dichotomy I wanted to create within the collection as a result of the main inspirations behind the designs. The initial inspiration I looked at prompted a focus on fashion and textile techniques using fabric, which eventually developed into a series of conceptual designs using the textile technique of French knitting with wire. Stemming from my interest in life drawing and the desire to create pieces which celebrate the human body, I was initially concentrating on designing pieces around the idea of weight and distortion. However, this progressed into looking at the contrast between restriction and liberation of the body following further development and late-stage inspiration, and how this translates into wearable jewellery. Coming from a fine art background, I drew inspiration from classical still life paintings I found visually stimulating and started investigating the hidden meanings behind the fruits included and ancient mythologies which regard them. I wanted to create sculptural wire forms which would adorn the most sensual parts of the body, the proximity of the fruit to the senses adding to the visual stimulation of the pieces through the photographs on the body. In this instance, the pieces I designed are made to be temporary, an accessory within a momentary photograph perhaps. Using real fruit in place of precious materials helps challenge the definition of jewellery as an art form, as well as helping to visually communicate the inspiration.
Jemima Wright
