UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 07 SEPTEMBER 2018
Ten BA (Hons) Jewellery and Object students were invited to Chatsworth House to exhibit their work at the Royal Horticultural Society Chatsworth Flower Show.
The exhibition was part of an extra-curricular live project with the Royal Horticultural Society which saw first and second year students from the course respond to a brief of iconic British designs hybridised with horticulture. The brief asked students to select one of 10 famous designs they were inspired by and that they could use as inspiration to start an exciting creative journey. Each student then combined their chosen iconic British design item with personal interests from the world of horticulture to create their piece.
Three prize winners were selected from the 10 students and awarded vouchers for a jewellery retail outlet. Emily Dougherty won Best in Show for her piece (pictured below left) which was derived from Meccano, the construction set that has presented generations of children with a wealth of structural possibilities for over 100 years. Meccano toys have helped to shape generations of young creatives, making them pivotal in the history of British design. Using new manufacturing methods to ensure the holes lined up, Emily created an interactive pendant which allows the audience to view a replica silver-plated Meccano set. Commenting on the piece Emily added:
Second-year student Arlena Paraschiveschu created a necklace (pictured above right) that was inspired by another iconic British design: the red telephone box. Titled ‘Propgate’, and made using gilding metal, silver, powder coat and phone cord, the piece aimed to convey the propagation of message or stories and the important role played in this process by the public phones.
Arlena is now using casting with flowers for her own process for her final year. Taking part in extra-curricular activities such as this gives students the opportunity to work on new pieces and develop new ideas and techniques without the pressure of it impacting their grades. Each piece at the show demonstrated how each student questioned and explored the boundaries of jewellery and object making, paving their way to become part of the next generation of British designers.
The final winner, Rosie Jehan, was inspired by the structure of George Carwardine's anglepoise lamp, and incorporated the parallels between the shape of the arm and stem of the a flower. Rosie's design utilises the bend of an anglepoise arm in a circle of stems, individually topped with a petal. Seen from above, this forms the shape of flower.