After a week of being cooped up at home with a horrid chest cold, and suffering from intense cabin fever, I finally made it out to civilisation and ventured to the London Design Museum on the weekend.
One of the three exhibitions was the Unexpected Pleasures exhibition, celebrating the different facets of jewellery, and exploring the wonderful journey of contemporary jewellery.
This neck piece by Gijs Bakker fused photography into PVC back in 1982.
Suzanne Klem brings a piece of sculptural nature by freezing the natural forms of time with heated and distorted Polyifin (plastic).
Something that I’ve been hearing so much of late, is 3D printing. I know its been around for decades, but it still wows me, printing an object in layers with different colours, wow.
The wonderful thing about 3D printing, is that you can make the most amazing sculptures… and turn it into a piece of art you can wear!
Ron Arad – Not Made by Hand
This watch bangle by Bless reminded me of the Maison Martin Margiela bangle, but this one, was made back in 2005.
Bless – Watch Bangle
Many designers take inspiration from Earthly delights, a beautiful example of this is Sam Tho Duong necklace, where seed pearls are used to create very natural looking forms to adorn the neck.
This little beauty (took me a while to figure out it is a…. ring…not sure where you put your finger) is made out of silicone disks, red dyed snap fasteners, and nylon thread. There’s a real romance to it that I just love.
The interesting thing with jewellery, is that for me it automatically is linked to fashion. But of course, this is not the case. Jewellery is art, it is design, it is craft… and yes… it is fashion!
This piece of art made back in 1945 by Alexander Calder using silver, red satin ribbon and silk cord.
This design piece was made in 1978 by David Watkins is made of materials that pushed the boundaries of design at the time, polymer resin, colour synthetic and gold.
David Watkins
I couldn’t believe this fashion necklace was made back in 1971 by Pierre Cardin.
Pierre Cardin
I love that statement jewellery is really taking the best of art, craft and design into new and exciting creations.
Unexpected Pleasures: The art and design of contemporary Jewellery until 3 March @ Design Museum, London
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