This necklace appeared in the 2023 Craft + Design Canberra Members Exhibition. It is made from sterling silver and silk, and measures 20.5 x 5 x 45cm.
Below is the artist statement for this work:
Most of my work explores the materiality of highly malleable fine silver sheet metal, which I refine through a rolling down process, pushing the metal to its limits. The result is a thin, delicate material that I can manipulate in the same way as a stiff fabric. With this process, I mimic in metal the movement and folds of fabric.
For this piece, I wanted to quite literally integrate fabric into my work. This neckpiece is made using two materials: sterling silver wire and silk fabric. I have repeated simple silversmithing techniques to create a necklace with five tiers, which form the foundation of the work. This simple form is elevated by the addition of uniform strips of fabric which are tied around individual links of the chain. The result is a bold, complex and voluminous neckpiece.
I consider silk to be a special fabric; it is a natural fibre, it is opulent and resplendent. I used green fabric because this colour gives me a sense of calm and fulfilment and also symbolises hope, rejuvenation, and peace with the natural world—something that is increasingly under threat. I have purposefully left the edges of the fabric frayed, thereby accentuating the many individual threads that constitute the beautiful, rich fabric made through an earlier repetitive process.
‘Untamed’ is playful and childlike—joyful to make, to look at, and wear.