CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY

Gillian Deery

Gillian Deery's making practice has a current focus of exploring fabrication techniques of thin sterling silver sheet. The thin material is chosen as it allows for fast working methods and is an ideal medium to capture and archive the action of the making process. It can be cut with scissors, bent, hammered, pressed, scratched, melted and transformed from a flat surface to a three dimensional form with relative ease and all marks of making are embedded in the surface. Choosing not to use solder, Gillian seeks alternative methods to join components together. These practical solutions include folding, crimping, threading, fusing and granulation, which lend a decorative as well as practical aspect to the finished object.

From 2015

Brooch, Untitled, 2015 $550
Sterling silver, paint, stainless steel
Earrings, Untitled, 2015 $390
Sterling silver, paint

From 2013

1. Neckpiece 2013 $1,400
Woven and fused sterling silver
15.5cm x 7cm

2. Neckpiece 2013 $950
Woven and folded sterling silver, flax, polyester cord and spray paint
17cm x 6cm

3. Neckpiece 2013 $950
Woven sterling silver, spray paint and shoelace
18.5cm x 7cm

4. Neckpiece 2013 $1,000
Folded sterling silver, flax, polyester cord and spray paint
16.5cm x 7cm

5. Neckpiece 2013 $1,100
Folded sterling silver, polyester and spray paint
13cm x 11cm

Photography by Gillian Deery

From 2012 Groupshow

Box Necklace $950
Stg silver paint, shoe lace

From 'Jewelism' 2012

"My aim in practice is to find solutions to join sterling silver sheet without the aid of solder and allow for play, incident and the materials themselves to suggest creative solutions. The aim is to look outside of traditional modes of silversmithing to expand upon possible solutions of fabrication. Folding was chanced upon as an ideal way to create mass and structure and transform the sheet into a three dimensional form. In the action of making repeated cuts and folds material incidents arose and were responded to, this process is a conversation between idea, making actions, material happenings and my making choices that led to the fully formed idea.
Sterling silver as a material provides both practical and conceptual qualities, which is why I prize it as a material. I like its workability, its tonal change in response to heat and its value and status as a material. These qualities are what enthuses me about using silver and what I rely upon to generate pieces that work within and outside of traditional values of silver as a jewellery material. In reference to Otto Künzli's 1980 'Gold Makes Blind' armband I asked myself what would happen if I made a piece that hid those personal and prized values of sterling silver?"

A lot of folding, Breastplate 2011 $710
Sterling silver, copper, acrylic paint

Silver Neckpiece 2012 $600
Sterling silver, acrylic paint, spray paint, Adidas shoe lace

From 2010

Granulated silver brooch $600

Granulated silver brooch $400

'Melted Beads' brooch $510
Sterling silver

From 2009

1. Flute Brooch. Oxidised sterling silver, sterling silver pin. $310
2. Flute Brooch. Oxidised sterling silver, sterling silver pin. $190
3. Flute Brooch. Sterling silver, sterling silver pin. $175
4. Flute Brooch. Sterling silver, sterling silver pin. $175