Despite not having the widest view of the contemporary jewellery world, it is amazing to meet artists who I've heard of or read briefly about in books. They've all been so lovely to us; telling us their stories and sharing their work and ideas. It's inspiring to see the way different people work, think and create in their different spaces.
Ela Bauer was the first artist we visited. She had a very cute little studio right on the banks of a canal. The room was filled with evidence of her work. Her walls were white but had work, photos, inspirations and samples pinned to them (which I loved! See the photo). Myself and some of the others were talking about how this is important because somehow you always seem to draw inspiration from old work. It's like the stepping stone to the next material or idea. The other thing I liked about Ela's talk was seeing and hearing about her exploration of materials polyurethane and silicone in particular. She talked about how we should talk with the things we are making: not only imposing your ideas but working with the material and using that to take you places as well.
We went to Gallerie Ra and had a really interesting talk with the owner (who is also and artist with some amazing work!). It was a kind of 'behind-the-scenes' look at the way a gallery and it's artists interact.
The part of the talk that interested me the most was about the directions contemporary jewellery could've gone in in comparison to where it has gone. Of the three options: art, industrial/product design and fashion, Paul said that it ha gone in the art direction whilst it forgot that the other options were there too. He also said that we forget about young people sometimes and that we need to enlarge the size of our market.
"when it's out of fashion, we call it classic"
(Paul Derrez)
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