What: Made in Clerkenwell
Where: Craft Central
When: 20th May 2011
I’ve been attending the open studios here for about 5 years, ever since I found out it existed. There is something about a busy workshop I find exciting! Here, there is such a variety of people, trades, products… Everything you could ever imagine! Every time I visit, I’m like a kid in a sweet shop! All eyes and hands! And talking to designers and makers is what 80% of the fun is. This of course fluctuates depending on the pre or post pay-day situation.
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| He's definately checking in on Facebook... |
Last night I met up with two wonderful people. Poly Philippou and Amy Keeper are both jewellers at craft central.
They are part of a new collective; 14 carat will be exhibiting during this year’s London Jewellery Week.
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| http://14carat.blogspot.com/ |
Poly Philippou told me all about her and her jewellery
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Poly Philippou |
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Poly Philippou My favourite piece of hers is this necklace with 32 charms. I know it’s a bit much, but every time I looked at it, I saw a different pod, or texture, or saw a flash of gold, then I found a pearl… brilliant! Each ‘pod’ Poly collected from her walks, in Cyprus and in London and really lets nature do the talking. Casting it in silver and letting the metal tell the story stories to everyone, forever. |
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Poly Philippou, image copyright Simon B Armitt 2010 The pieces I have to share with you are these cufflinks. These very cleaver cufflinks have come from Poly’s annoyance with the bog standard cufflink toggle or swivel back. These are using the function of linking cuffs dictate the shape that they are. The outcome are these very masculine, completely practical and wearable pieces that double up as a pretty cool thing to have on your bed side table, not to be mistaken for a message from outer space. |
Amy Keeper answers my questions about her jewellery
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| Amy Keeper |
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Amy Keeper My favourite piece is this brooch. Its so small and detailed and reminds me of old cameos of the 1920’s. Amy went on to tell me why- its because that’s the decade the image was taken from! I love the romance that the picture holds, and by etching it onto metal makes me a bit soppy, to think that now Amy has taken the time and make this piece in metal that the image will continue to live on for another hundred years, even if the photo itself doesn’t. The photo etching teamed with the blackened metal set the age of the picture too, reminiscent of old black and white movie stills. And not having a completely silver, high shine polish, the grey metal gives it age, history and almost an extra delicateness as you want to be careful with it. I dare for this not to make you happy inside. |
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Amy Keeper The piece I have to share this necklace, gold with a rock crystal spinning centre. The matching ring is on the flyer for the show (second picture in) and I really enjoy the playfulness and interactivity it provokes. And it makes for a pretty cool picture too with the rock crystal magnifier over the old map book. |
I know I’m bias as a jeweller that anything in metal is fantastic because it can last forever, but its true! These two completely different jewellers use precious metal to tell their stories in totally different ways.
Learn more about 14 carat at http://14carat.blogspot.com/ and don’t forget to put the dates in your diary, but if you’re in London tomorrow, Made in Clerkenwell is still on! http://www.craftcentral.org.uk/madeinclerkenwell pop in!
Jx
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