Fashion, Fake and Fun – the jewellery business re-defined!
Traditionally, the fine jewellery trade has heavily defined the line between fashion, fake or fun jewellery and fine jewellery, manufactured out of precious metals and gemstones. Today, as the price of metal commodities continues to rise, jewellery created using a mixture of precious and non-precious materials is far more common and silver has now taken its rightful place amongst the nobel metals on display in a jewellers showroom.
Instead of diminishing their enthusiasm, the current economic doom and gloom has inspired designers to create big statement pieces using knitted nylon thread, re-cycled bottle tops, leather thongs with chunks of unpolished crystals and some very traditional materials used in a very untraditional way!
We are also seeing the rise of mixed media jewellery that makes some very interesting political statements, such as the pieces that illustrate this article by Timothy Carson. Timothy’s piece, “Give me the money“, is an attack on the attitudes and actions of the petro-chemical industry. It is made from gilding metal, brass and acrylic, coloured with car enamel, but manufactured and finished using the traditional jewellers tools and methods. “White War” makes a very graphic, political statement about the horror and futility of war. Timothy has exhibited his work in many contemporary jewellery galleries including Lesley Craze in Clerkenwell Green, the CAA Gallery in Percy Street and Dazzle under the name of Timothy Information Limited.
So whilst the media pump out news stories of economic disaster, the young designers buck the trend and the independent galleries and retail jewellers experiment with collections that they might not have once considered appropriate for their market.
Images of “Give me the Money” at the top of this feature, and “White War” are by Simon Armitt. www.simonbarmitt.com.
Images reproduced by kind permission of Simon Armitt and Timothy Information Limited.
