From Jewellery to Sculpture: Thoughts on Mingling Fields of Practice.

(Full Text 6750 words, approx. 20 - 30 minute read time)

Introduction Extract: 

I occupy two roles, sculptor and jeweller. Or I could use a single broader term (as many of my peers prefer) and say that I am a “maker”, but I turn to both sculpture and jewellery. Regardless of how I identify myself, I often sense an unavoidable distinction between these two fields of practice. I usually feel that each object I make is slightly more one or the other, and debatably, never equally both. However, I would not say with any conviction that I could confidently point to the exact spot where conceptually, a sculpture ends, and jewellery begins (or vice versa).

There is also no simple or obvious characteristic that I could argue belongs exclusively to one field and not the other, yet I find I am instinctively able to name which side I have landed on when I have finished making a piece, to be honest I more often know before I even start. For my latest project, I felt compelled to embrace this cognitive dissonance and sit in that intriguing grey area for a while. Through making a piece of practical work and writing this text I have aimed to understand more about the workings of these fickle defining features and seek ways to consciously engage, question and manipulate them.

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 In this text I will unpick what I found and lay it out in three sections titled: Rubber, Metal, Scale. These titles represent the constituent parts, where alteration occurred in the transition, and the areas of tension (literal and metaphorical) I felt in this process. These materials act as starting points to discuss the philosophies and values inherent to my work, and question whether I wish to continue with these. The material sections are then followed by my conclusion titled: The Order of Things.