Ice Drops Pendants

<p dir="ltr">Background: This research is situated in the field of material experimentation, vitreous enamelling, contemporary jewellery and the environment. This enquiry has been inspired by observing nature and science and has led to the development of a new and innovative enamel application that connects contemporary photo transfer processes with historical techniques used in symbolic precious objects including granulation and plique á jour. Museums and art galleries include jewellery objects that illustrate technical mastery in advanced manufacturing techniques from antiquity till today. Jewellery that explores plique á jour as a technique that is known as time consuming and scarcely made in this rapid world of AI and 3d Printing. Scientists, theorists and anthropologists including Anna Ploszajski, Glen Adamson and Tim Ingold have written about the understandings of material and process that artists and makers gain through time and experience. </p><p dir="ltr">Contribution: Ice drops connects the symbolic form of jewellery and the preciousness of plique á jour and granulation with the methodical scientific process of studying ice cores for important data to understand our climate history and future. Plique á jour translates to “letting in daylight” and it is referred to as early as 600 AD, with existing examples dating from as 1400 AD. The delicate technique uses an open metal framework of cells for inlaying and firing grains of transparent enamel at approx. 800°C. Granulation dates back even earlier at 5000 years and involves tiny metal granules fused to a base of sheet metal creating detailed patterns and arrangements. Ice drops is informed by Antarctic environments and ice core processing that analyses precious singular droplets melted from ice cores. This research uses glass distillation spheres to symbolise the individual droplets of water collected from the continuous melting process. The transparent spheres are positioned on an enamelled image of a glacier in a regular grid pattern and this highlights the preciousness of this scientific testing. The spheres are then fused into the image and this method makes reference to historically treasured artefacts of metal granulation and enamel plique á jour. </p><p dir="ltr">Significance: The work has been exhibited in Brussels, Belgium and later at Craft Victoria in Melbourne Australia. The research was first presented in Particles during the Brussels Jewellery Week in the curated exhibition PARTICLE[S] at MAD Brussels, An incubator and meeting point for the Brussels fashion & design industry with scenography by Marie Douel. The exhibition project and publication was curated by Les Brucelles with a panel of expert jurors for the exhibition included Eveline Bracke, Curator at Design Museum Gent, David Huycke, Teacher at PXL-MAD school of Arts Hasselt, Chequita Nahar, Head of Fine Art and Design program at the Maastricht Institute of Arts, Dilphine Perrache, Jewellery artist, Patrick Sigal Expert of the contemporary jewellery department at Pierre Bergé Auction. From the 96 works on show Ice Drops received an award ‘The Budapest Jewelry Award - which aims to reward the innovation concerning the concept and the implementation, as well as the technical excellence of artworks. The winner artist’s works perfectly meet these criteria. Her works communicate human experiences and connections with the environment using the special technique of phototransfer and involving site and archival studies.’</p>