Stefanie Cheong
Graduating with First Class Honours from Glasgow School of Art, Stefanie Cheongbrought her O-pin Project to Birmingham Cathedral Square for In:Site 2013. Through the O-pin project Stefanie hoped to inspire other people and help the practice of Contemporary Art Jewellery by spreading awareness through participation.
Winner of the Creative practice award in the 21st annual Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Enterprises, Stefanie came loaded with interesting and inspiring recycled materials and personally encouraged curious visitors to create their own jewellery pieces using her pre made blank pins. The O-pin project is an on going initiative, cards with the blank pin are left anywhere to be discovered, the recipient is then directed to the O-pin website where they are given instructions to make a pin, there is also an online gallery of the pins that have been submitted.
Alice Clarke
Alice’s home in the farming valley of Nidderdale set in the heart of North Yorkshire is the inspiration for her work. A First Class BA graduate from Birmingham City Universities School of Jewellery her collection “Sunday Best” captured the essence of Yorkshire. The farmer who ties his Barbour together with string and says; “It’ll be ‘right!” and the farmer’s wife who brings the family together on Sunday’s for afternoon tea and makes sure everyone’s cup is full. At the end of the day when the last brew has been poured and the family say their goodbyes, all that’s left are the memories and remains captured in a simple stain of tea.
For Alice’s intervention, she used Yorkshire Teabags to create mini tea sculptures. her intention was to bring a taste of her rural roots to the centre of Birmingham and encourage visitors to contemplate what the act of drinking tea meant to them, from problem solving to gossip making.
Joshua Devenish
Wood Sculptor, Joshua Devenish gained his BA(hons) in Contemporary Applied Arts from Hereford College of Arts. Joshua is inspired by the natural world. He is driven to give new life to fallen branches, deconstructing and reassembling to form geometric forms.
Appologies for the sound quality on this video
Claire Duerden
Another graduate from Birmingham City University , Claire Duerden was offered the post of Artist in Residence at the School of Jewellery on completion of her BA.
Claire’s final degree collection involved creating fine yet protective superstructures with nested spherical forms. She used fine stainless steel wire to create delicate and curvaceous cages. this framework held the secondary element made from a hybrid wax. Duerden developed the wax to create miniature nests which are sort and tictile but also very durable.
For Insite13 Claire proposed to scale up her new wax technique, testing the limits of its durability in an attempt to turn her jewlelery into large scale sculptures.
Megan Freeman
Post Graduate Megan Freeman gained her MA in Narrative Enviroments from the world renowned Central Saint Martins, London.
An interior designer by trade, Megs is facinated by human behaviour and how the built enviroment can have the ability to enrich community wellbeing. A maker, people watcher, dreamer, traveller, creative problem solver, Megs is passionate about uniting people through public design.
Hands can communicate withouth the need for spoken words. No matter what your beliefs, cultural heretage, wealth, age, gender, we are all connected by our shared enviroment and our need for personal expression. An extended hand can be seen as a universal gesture of greeting, compassion and comfort.
Megs created a casting station to cast visitors hands, which were then attached to park benches around the square. Marketing herself as “I am Curious“, Megan Freeman presented “Take a Break to Reach Out” invited people to “sit down, reach out and hold hands with your bench”.
Francine Oeyen
Francine Oeyen, also a post graduate from Central Saint Martins gained her MA in Design – Jewellery .
Francine uses unconventional materials and techniques to create pieces with strong narrative element. Disregarded materials such as cardboard, paper, cork or fabric are transformed into precious pieces of jewellery through the making process, creationg something woth cherishing.
Oeyen’s collection “FIesta” uses embroidery, cotton threads and labour to transform corrugated cardboard into beautiful pieces of jewellery which questiones traditional categories of value, preciousness and luxury.
For In:Site13, Francine intended to build and install a set of “Tree Jewellery” employing the same techniques, adapting the the accessories to the anatomy of the tree.
Oeyen was facinated by the thought of cardboard asthe remains of a dead tree and wanted to play with the idea of using it to adorn a living tree.
Unfortunately the wonderful British weather had other ideas!