Christine Kaltoft

Jewellery Designer Maker

Origin 2010

Media_http3bpblogspot_uiseo


Been to visit Origin, the London Craft Fair in it's new venue. Spitalfields is a great area, but the tent itself was a bit of a let down after the great structure they had in Somerset House last year. Terrific makers as usual though.

I particularly loved the work of Wycliffe Stutchbury who makes amazing wall pieces from old timber.

Media_http1bpblogspot_gaege


What was also wonderfully different and imaginative was the work of Joanne Tinker, who creates art works from materials that are normally thrown away. I loved the collections of tiny sculptures made from colourful sweet wrappers, all origamied and lined up!

Recycling, reclaiming, and re-appropriation were definitely still the flavour of the day, which isn't surprising given the zeitgeist I suppose. Suits me, as I love reinterpreted materials and things with layers of meaning, or that are just plain fun.

Platform showcase

Media_http1bpblogspot_nsmuw
www.platformjewellery.com

Media_http1bpblogspot_vdddh
Platform contemporary jewellery gallery, 31 Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8AF
Media_http2bpblogspot_wespr

I was in Hatton Garden yesterday, so I popped in to Platform gallery. I have a collection of work in their current showcase, which is looking great! Lovely to have my work alongside some fantastic jewellers there! The current show runs for a couple of months (till late October).

Sorry about what I've done with the image of your name Platform: just got playing with my iPhone on the journey home!

More thoughts from the ACJ conference ...

A further thought after my last post: someone - I think Sofia Bjorkman (of the Platina Gallery in Stockholm) - suggested that working with materials you don't like is a really good exercise. Your resistance to re-imagining and transforming them is reduced, which can only be a good thing. After my experience in the Robert Ebendorf workshop I can believe that, and it's something I will return to.

This reminds me of a talk by Maria Militsi, a jeweller who works with found objects and who often bases her work on pieces that are broken or damaged. She makes replacement pieces for the missing elements and these pieces are wearable. It's a really imaginative approach to jewellery design.You can see an image of Maria's work here.

Another thought from Sofia was that jewellery in the spectrum of visual art, is the equivalent of poetry in writing. Very apt. The remit for jewellery is very specific, and I can see the parallels between different forms of poetry and different pieces of jewellery.

I guess the aim of a good conference should be to get you thinking about things in different ways, and as you can tell this one did! Thanks ACJ!