Christmas Exhibition 2011

This year I have had a big change around allowing an extra 10 new designers to exhibit, so it really is a lot of exciting new jewellery

We are also very pleased to be showcasing in the downstairs gallery, the Alchemy series of original paintings by local artist Katrina Solano. Stephen Gribbles vibrant funky images of the city are still on show in the upstairs gallery

Anna Calvert

Anna’s current collection has drawn inspiration the symbiosis of old and new – how new moss can grow on an old tree for example. Each idea is developed from a sketch or photograph into a model before it is made in silver using traditional silversmithing skills. Anna uses soft leather, manipulating it to capture the organic forms, which she then encases in the silver.

Christine Kaltoft

Christine designs and makes graphic contemporary jewellery. She mostly works in fine gold and silver wires, sometimes including elements of wood. Christine’s inspiration comes from the movements and sounds she comes across. she captures these moments with a quick sketch and later creates jewellery that conveys the energy of the experience, resulting in jewellery that bursts or flows, simple and elegant, or complex and layered.

Debbie Noble

Debbie’s work deals with the elements of life and the memories that these hold. Influenced by places, events, people and the sentimentality these evoke to produce jewellery pieces that are cathartic, celebratory and sombre. Debbie creates small-scale sculptural pieces, using a combination of processes alongside jewellery making techniques.

Emma Macleod

Mainly inspired by Dundee’s bustling dockyards, Emma has documented the activity of the yards throughout the year with photography and transferred this to her jewellery. Focusing mainly in the structure of the large rig legs and scaling them down to fit the body. Emma works in silver using oxidisation for contrast.

Fiona Hermse

Artistic photography forms a large part of Fiona’s work in developing the thematics of her collections. Fiona is constantly inspired by our interaction with the natural world and is particularly inspired by superstition and myth in nature. This collection focuses on ancient beliefs that a moth and butterfly embody a human soul, a concept she finds particularly poignant and beautiful, She focuses on the wing shapes of individual species of moth, butterflies and other insects to create the pieces.

Gill Galloway-Whitehead

Gill has developed a method of working with fine wire, which allows her to express herself much in the same way as she would when painting. Different densities of wire can be manipulated to create surface changes in tone and texture. Using the whiteness of fine silver in combination with the rich yellow gold of fine gold as well as the black through to grey of oxidation gives a satisfying palette. The wire strand in isolation is fragile but when manipulated into mesh gains strength. The contrast between the look of fragility and actual resilience plays with the perception when embodied in one piece of work.

Karen Dell’Armi

Karen’s new hope collection was inspired by her recent charity climb to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro – the mosses and lichens on the ancient trees near the Machame Gate – and the giant lobelia and senecio at altitude in an otherwise very baron volcanic landscape. The hope collection features electrolytically etched hand-formed silver links and unusual rough cut, unpolished precious and semi-precious stones I vibrant colours – such as agate slices, carnelian, lapis lazuli and chrysoprase.

Nobuko Okumura

This collection is called “Threads Collection”. Nobuko developed her designs from drawings to 3D textile work and then it has moved into metal. Rapid Prototyping has become one of the fastest growing artisan techniques in fine jewellery and silversmithing today. She has worked extensively with threads and silks in her jewellery before giving the threads a resin based armature. This process was very successful in the short term however to provide the pieces with a permanent structure and wearable durability she developed a rapid prototype range in pure silver with forms taken directly from her thread pieces.

Sharleen Marius

Sharleen makes simple and organic jewellery forms with rich surface texture, inspired by the effects of time, age and corrosion. Through the use of unorthodox metals and techniques, she challenges the traditional preconceptions of what jewellery should be. She primarily works with non-precious metals such as steel yet enjoys the contrast that can be created by combining these with more traditional materials such as silver. The colour and surface texture found on each of her products is never the same and as an alternative to soldering, all of my products are created using cold-joining techniques such as riveting.

Zsuzsi Morrison

Zsuzsi’s pieces develop in an organic way allowing designs to evolve with colours, shapes and patterns altering as new designs emerge.

Fine silver and 22ct gold are worked freestyle, the designs made entirely by hand and then enamelled.Enamel is laid on in a painterly fashion. Tiny washed and ground granules, suspended in water are applied with a fine paintbrush. Subtle and vibrant colours are used together. Opaque and transparent enamels form blocks of colour or, when layered in separate firings, with opals, create a watercolour effect.

Katrina Solano – Artist (Alchemy Series)

Over the past year Katrina has developed an extensive series of paintings called Alchemy. They are a reflection on the inner landscapes of the mind and the outer landscapes of the wider world and contain her ideas of change, inner spirit, memory and the alchemy of all life. The paintings go through their own alchemical process, built up over many layers with the images developing over time. Leaf metals introduced at an early stage can be obliterated by the acrylic paint only to re-emerge later. The processes they go through give them a rich textural surface and deep intense colour. Katrina works from an attic studio in Plymouth where the windows overlook most of the city and out across to the sea, breakwater and beyond. The view is an inspiration in itself and at twilight it is especially beautiful with the city’s lights twinkling against an indigo sky.