Continuing the wood theme...at this year's Treasure exhibition, held in Somerset House, I discovered the work of Diane Turner. The South African jeweller combines sculpted wood with gold and silver plating. Turner explained that the crater shown in the piece below was hidden within a piece of wood that she bought and was only discovered upon slicing and shaping it. She subsequently incorporated it into the design by plating it in the same metal that encases the geometric 'tree'. I think Turner's use of wood and metal presents an interesting example of how wood can be used in contemporary jewellery. 

Weird, woody forms also appeared on the beach in Southwold I visited this summer...

There were a few other intriguing sights along the Suffolk coastline...the power of weather to manipulate and form our landscapes and nature has always fascinated me.

The clustered and compressed appearance of my 20 piece collection shares a similar aesthetic to chipboard. Although it is a common manmade board I find it's aesthetic appearance rather appealing. As did a fine art student at this years Chelsea degree show, who had created a chipboard 'print' jacket. It was also interesting to see a textile student using different colours and textures of wood to create constructions that complimented their garments.

Towards the beginning of my 20/21 project, the annual 'Collect' exhibition was on display in the Saatchi gallery. The four day exhibition showcases a wide variety of galleries involved in contemporary crafts. Two galleries that I was happy to see again were the Marzee and Gallerie RA, which are both located in Amsterdam. I was fortunate to visit both of them on a course trip. One of the jewellers presented by Gallerie RA this year was Boris De Beijer. His pieces are made by setting objects in resin and subsequently slicing and reconstructing the pieces into brooches. This sliced aesthetic was interestingly something I was looking at in my 20/21 project. Another piece that inspired the development of my own project was the work of Carina Chitsaz. Her geometirc structures that look a little like they've dropped out of space are made using silver, steel and graffiti. 

 Boris De Beijer

Carina Chitsaz

A few other things that caught my attention, were the clustered ring creations of Karl Fritsch. I have previously been intrigued by Fritsch's work as he challenges the associations of precious stones and metals. I also enjoyed the hybrid creatures made in porcelain by Hanne Tyrmi. 

Karl Fritsch

Hanne Tyrmi

Whilst the pieces I saw at the Collect exhibition inspired the design development for my 20/21 project, It was interesting to see the sliced creations of...after I had completed it. The large exhibition at the Natural History Museum was both intriguing and unsettling. The images below show a section of a sliced giraffe and the cross section of a rat.

One of the final projects of my second year involved creating a batch of 21 wearable pieces, followed by 20 identical pieces. The brief was largely open- ended, leaving it for us to decide the material, concept and techniques. Whilst being slightly dazzled by the endless possibilites, I began to loosely focus on the Bauhaus notion of creating order out of chaos and challenging material perceptions. I was interested in creating structure out of 'mess' and slicing and sculpting cross sections of colour. I was equally interested in manipulating materials to create hybrid disguises.

After a lot of experimenting, I developed the idea of using wood veneer, which I chopped into tiny pieces, and forming them into clustered fold structures. The folded shape was taken directly from my previous experiments with acetate sheet, where I looked at applying the 'butterfly effect' to form. Throughout my development and final 41 piece collection I experimented with polypropylene, glass, card, acetate, clear resin, clear silicone rubber, brass rod and wood veneers. Below is one of the 20 identical pieces I made to be sold next year.