The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is an incredible pool of objects that can bring you closer to aesthetic history and history in general.
Inspired by... is the annual competition run by this museum for ceramics, glass and jewellery students.
You have to get your inspiration from of the -trillion- objects in this superfascinating museum and follow it to through the journey it takes you to a final piece. I was happy to take that journey for the 2010 competition that started with an object from the British Galleries, a tunnel book from the Great Exhibition of 1851.
I found this object very exciting and inviting with it's little peep hole which suggest that an intriguing little perspective world will open up to you if you come closer and have a look.
I enjoyed the promising movement of this accordion shaped object and the playfulness of it's optical games.
I wanted my final piece to have all these elements of the original object.
At first came the Eureka! of the idea I was happy with and then came a lot of: playing around, thinking, trying out test pieces, getting annoyed, making samples, drawing, biting my nails, sweating, cutting copper, cutting silver, running around and consulting lovely classmates and wonderful tutors at Kensington and Chelsea College.
And it all came together in my piece the "Enchanted Circus". It's a silver necklace with 5 riveted circles, each with a little figure that move and construct a perspective view of a circus:
a little acrobat balancing on her ball, with the help of her umbrella under the flags and spotlights of the circus.
It can be worn either open or closed with it's separate chain. The chain has a small dancer at the end that slides through her hula hoop to keep it hanging.
I've left my miniature circus in the V&A for the time being as it will be exhibited from the 3rd October till November along with all the pieces that were short listed for this competition so if you want to see it you can go round there and tell me what you think.
Hope you do and hope you enjoy
Materials: silver, 18ct yellow gold plate, 9ct rose gold plate
Techniques: hammering, fussing, oxidizing, riveting, engraving
Inspired by... is the annual competition run by this museum for ceramics, glass and jewellery students.
You have to get your inspiration from of the -trillion- objects in this superfascinating museum and follow it to through the journey it takes you to a final piece. I was happy to take that journey for the 2010 competition that started with an object from the British Galleries, a tunnel book from the Great Exhibition of 1851.
I found this object very exciting and inviting with it's little peep hole which suggest that an intriguing little perspective world will open up to you if you come closer and have a look.
I enjoyed the promising movement of this accordion shaped object and the playfulness of it's optical games.
I wanted my final piece to have all these elements of the original object.
At first came the Eureka! of the idea I was happy with and then came a lot of: playing around, thinking, trying out test pieces, getting annoyed, making samples, drawing, biting my nails, sweating, cutting copper, cutting silver, running around and consulting lovely classmates and wonderful tutors at Kensington and Chelsea College.
And it all came together in my piece the "Enchanted Circus". It's a silver necklace with 5 riveted circles, each with a little figure that move and construct a perspective view of a circus:
a little acrobat balancing on her ball, with the help of her umbrella under the flags and spotlights of the circus.
It can be worn either open or closed with it's separate chain. The chain has a small dancer at the end that slides through her hula hoop to keep it hanging.
I've left my miniature circus in the V&A for the time being as it will be exhibited from the 3rd October till November along with all the pieces that were short listed for this competition so if you want to see it you can go round there and tell me what you think.
Hope you do and hope you enjoy
Materials: silver, 18ct yellow gold plate, 9ct rose gold plate
Techniques: hammering, fussing, oxidizing, riveting, engraving
Very well done, Lilly (you may not remember me from college) but I hope everything goes really well in Italy and I'm sure it will as you are very , very talented... and irrepressable!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Jenny! it's nice to get nice words from talented people so thank you again and I'll pop by your website
ReplyDeletewww.jennybalson.com