A quick trip to the New Designers exhibition last month left me inspired to get back to the bench!
New Designers is an event to showcase the best in new and emerging design talent across a range of disciplines. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go around the whole event, I did however make a beeline for the jewellery/precious metal section. Every material I could think of was represented there, along with some more traditional materials and designs, which were somewhat drowned in the sea of the avant-garde.
There are over 3000 exhibitors at New Designers, and of course not all jewellers, so here’s a taste of some of the highlights:
The wooden jewellery of Sayoko Kobayashi was beautifully crafted and I was fascinated to hear about some of the techniques she used for staining the wood, which included raspberry juice and onion skins!
My colleague and friend had her head turned by the laser cut rubber range of body adornment pieces produced by Black Lune, truly statement pieces with such a unique look and feel.
I’m pretty sure my co-blogger would have enjoyed seeing the crocheted wirework of Sheila Zeat, [yes you’re right I would have loved to see this as a crochet addict!]
Being a gem lady myself, I was drawn to Lindsay Hill’s rings, in particular the large geometric ring with movable stone, this designer won the Weston Beamor Award for her work, a great achievement.
There were a number of awards handed out at the event and a list of the winners can be found here. As I mentioned above there are a number of areas of design featured, but we make special mention of Karen Elizabeth Donovan who won the Goldsmiths’ Company award for Jewellery with her stunning designs.
Although there were so many to choose from, my favorite piece was a wonderfully tactile gold strip layered ring from the LISSOM collection of Mireia Rossell showing in the one year on section (along with Black Lune) which welcomes back some previously shown graduates to chart their progress. One size fits all[FYI your co-blogger is ridiculously jealous that you tried this on and wants a go herself]!! The ring was comfortable to wear and oh so springy! I was advised you could play with the shape and wear it different ways even stretched out as a neckpiece! Although I was too afraid of damaging this lovely ring to try it out myself, I was most impressed when the designer demonstrated on herself! If you want to see what I am talking about do have a look at her website:
So what do you think – stars in the making? We’ll be keeping an eye out….
If you’d like to check out any of the other jewellery (or indeed not jewellery) exhibitors from New Designers 2014 – One Year On you can find a list here and here. We’ve picked out the jewellers for you below (if we’ve missed anyone out do let us know!):
If you’re a blooming designer why don’t you apply to exhibit at New Designers next year?!
Adventures through the loupe 