Winter neckpiece

Inari Kiuru, Winter (from Winter Thoughts-series) 2010-14

Stainless steel and brass safety pins, sterling silver and 9c gold catch, enamel, enamel paint, varnish.

300 mm x 150mm x 80mm.
Articulated.

Winter is an interpretation of the artist’s native Northern European urban landscape in late December. Tree branches dark and bare; old stone buildings wet with rain, now newly covered with snow. And underneath the cool surface, hundreds of lines follow and cross each other, bound together, layer upon layer, perhaps with a little sting inside. Like people, like cities, like history.
Season upon season ...  - Inari Kiuru

This piece was exhibited last spring (October 2014) as part of M.contemporary gallery's Intimately Connected-exhibition, curated by Michelle Paterson, in Woollahra, Sydney.

"Jewellery art like many other forms of fine art has the intention to express a sophisticated and well-developed concept or narrative through its display and materials. Artists investigate different topics to create individual pieces covering a broad spectrum of ideas and motivations; a piece of contemporary jewellery has the ability to take on the role of adornment with charisma, class and presence." - Gallery exhibition media

The safetypins have been woven together by interlinking (lock & secure). Liquid, industrial white enamel–powdered glass with a clay like agent– has then been painted onto the structure, and the piece has been fired with a big gas & oxygen torch to fuse the enamel onto the steel at approximately 800 degrees Celcius. Enamel paint has been applied at places to add bright highlights. The catch is hand forged from 9 carate gold and sterling silver.

The very happy new owner of the piece, Dr Gene Sherman of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Dr Sherman also opened the exhibition) with the artist who's gone quiet with joy. I'm wearing a brooch from the same series, fabricated similarly to the neckpiece.

Words & Works from a World Away

"What do they say about us on the other side of the world?
And what do you know about them?  

Words & Works from a World Away exhibition unites the northern and southern hemispheres through the work of jewellery and object artists from Australia & Estonia. In each country statements were collected from ordinary members of the public about their knowledge and opinion of the other country. Each artist chose a statement about their country from someone on the other side of the world. The piece they made is a reaction to this statement.

Words spoken across the globe invite a personal study of our own culture and a reaction to other's perceptions of who we are. Each piece is a navigation of an outsider's perspective and the resulting realisations and revelations about our own identity.

The two cultures have been explored through unverified perceptions and understandings. The resulting objects are repositories of both cultural and personal narratives. They examine the global flow of information between two physically and culturally separate countries and provoke an international exploration of self."

Claire McArdle (2013)
Curator

(link to the original statement on Claire's website)

* * *


“Antelopes come from there. They treat Estonians well.
Everybody who has gone to work there
manages their life well.” - Mare

Here is my piece : )

Mare’s boss in Melbourne was such a friendly bloke (2013)
Neckpiece
Modelling paste, paint, steel
140 x 140 x 90 mm

Please note: Posted 2014 but backdated to July 2013 in order to keep archives in chronological order.

Wedding ornaments for another time 1: Drought

Photography: © RMIT University, Melbourne 2008 >

Wedding ornaments for another time 1: Drought (Inari Kiuru 2008)
shower cable, brass taps, 925 silver, 18ct gold, found objects
fused, soldered, fabricated

Please click on the image if you want to see detail clearly - here the photo condenses into a very pixelated one for some reason!


While still photographing work from this semester and the year gone, this is something from the recent past, one of the four pieces designed and made during the traditional "fusion" project at RMIT, on our first year 2008, then taught by Mr Robert Baines. The idea was to create a neck piece which incorporated gold embedded in silver (we learned the whole process from melting granules to gradually rolling the sheet of gold and silver into a thin layer), fused sterling silver pieces (= no solder, metal joined by heat only, at the right melting point), mixed with modern materials.

My work for the brief evolved into a four piece collection of rather large "wedding ornaments" (this was the semester preceding my own wedding, hence perhaps the theme … :), imagined to belong to a future time where environmental or another catastrophe might have changed our living conditions, circumstances, and available resources significantly.

The first piece is titled "Drought", something I had been thinking about a lot at the time, after a move from Perth to Melbourne – here, we faced serious water restrictions for the first time in our lives.

The most beautiful neckpiece, maybe ever

Neckpiece
c.1900, Papua New Guinea
Uncut stones in natural fibre (grass?) setting, woven and wax-hardened

During the JMGA Perth 2010 conference, at Gallery East, Fremantle, I met a beautiful lady wearing this beautiful piece. I could not stop looking and admiring it, there was something about it that completely captivated me. The contrast between the rough, natural stones and the soft, dark weaving; semi-transparent and opaque, the way light played on the piece, and the way it looked a perfect fit for the wearer who appeared luminous herself – something that particularly interests me in the aesthetics and culture of wearable jewellery.

The lucky owner was happy to engage in conversation and kindly let me take a photo. She, a well-travelled owner of a boutique specialising in Asian imports, told me that she found this necklace in Papua New Guinea, and estimated it over a hundred years old. The substance used to harden the woven setting must therefore be very durable, to last and be able to hold the heavy stones. The design is also timeless as this (to me, at least) could be a contemporary neck piece as well as an ancient, ancient work of art.

I realise I should have taken a peek at the attachment system also, it would have been interesting to see how and with what materials the "catch" had been resolved.