Jewellery is a strong source of inspiration for the pieces I make. There is an intricacy in design and an appreciation for shape and materials in found jewellery that is very interesting when worked through the prism of larger decorative ideas and furniture. Facets, rough-cuts, clasps, settings; all elements from jewellery that I have worked in ways that give dimension and structure to other ideas.
Connections between jewellery structure and sculpture in my designs are confused – in a healthy way – with my pursuit of texture and rare materials. There is in another way an overarching search for concepts that translate from jewellery to furniture because I feel I am making jewellery for interior spaces – pieces that adorn and hold one’s attention and draw the hand to them.
These pieces have their roots in the overlapping space where jewellery, interiors, materials and sculpture meet:
The Vesper’s console and low table were inspired by stone settings in jewellery. Clasps ‘set’ the table surfaces, which are made from polished gold lacquer, bronze-coloured straw marquetry or complex and porcelain-like eggshell. The cast bronze legs create a sense of sculptural monumentality in the table’s structure while the “clasps” hold the precious surface of the table. They glow with their materials in quiet spaces and bring structure, form and colour to richer settings.
The Magnificat Mirror is a bracelet of interlocking parts that reflect and play with light. It is composed of 50 lacquered, convex sections that have been gilded, while the concave faces are covered with burnt, polished straw. Like a piece of jewellery, the mirror has a complex internal construction, but hangs as a pure jewel-like expression of material and form. The mirror is a centerpiece, its undulating frame a faceted gem that emits light in many directions.
The Bague Spot table has a subtly oval form with a round, inset ‘precious’ surface. This idea, along with the ten braces supporting the top, was inspired by a 17th-century ring holding an intaglio. The table’s architecture is very European, and the finished objects, with plains of deep polished bronze and tops in gilded sand and antiqued shagreen, are jewel-like in a modernist manner. The idea was for a small table, sitting aside a chair and with precious smooth surfaces, to support just one glass of wine and a small plate.
Taking tiny pieces of jewellery and creating furniture requires close attention to detail and a measure of patience in finding what may work and what needs editing. Searching obscure references for flashes of inspiration, for details that spark off ideas, is another way of hunting for treasure.
