Jewellery stories

Walking in the expanded field of jewellery - Roseanne Bartley recounts a series of pathfinding projects that take jewellery to and from the streets.
Street Sweepers: Adornment for outside care - Anke Kindle pays homage to the invisible labour of street cleaners with a jewellery practice that turns brushes into jewels.
Weaving Sumba’s history into the fabric of the world - Paul v Walters tells the inspiring story of MANAMU, a studio for woven steel jewellery on a remote Indonesian island.
Jewellery in hand - Brune Boyer is inspired by the ring of Prometheus to make objects that are cupped in the hand.
Stevei Houkāmau ✿ Clay as whakapapa - Zoe Black tracks the journey of Stevei Houkāmau in finding whakapapa connections through ceramics.
Jess Dare ✿ Handful of flowers - Adelaide jeweler Jess Dare explores the dialogue of ephemerality and metal in a collection of floral works in brass.
Secret(ion)s from an occasionally scented jewellery practice - Melinda Young shares her quest to transform scent into personal adornment
Cardamom is forever: Jewellery for the Sri Lankan diaspora - Through the process of electroforming, Inoka Samarasekara has been able to embody the smell of Sri Lanka into her jewellery.
Scented adornment in North Africa and Southwest Asia - Sigrid van Roode discovers redolent objects of wearable fragrance in the cultures of the Middle East.
Jewellery to cast away the evil of the world - In a Tehran cafe, friends gather to imbibe Sepideh Ghasemi's redolent jewellery.
What to make of invasive species: Cara Johnson’s jewellery practice on the land - Cara Johnson talks to Ilka White about a jewellery practice that is in dialogue with the settler and natural worlds that she inhabits.
Psychometry: Series of PaAo ancient casting bronze hand ornaments with AR - Rudee Tancharoen cast a series of rings in Ban PaAo that were augmented by Peeraphat Kittisuwat, evoking the natural spirits that inspired them.
Rosa Taikon: Jewellery as a medium of struggle - Join us for a Reinventing the Wheel talk by Christina Zetterlund about silver jewellery, Roma culture and Swedish craft.
Alice Potter ✿ You’re more than just fruit & veg - Mel Young offers a tribute to the Australian jeweller, Alice Potter, whose embroidered ornaments brought joy to so many.
Gilty: Consuming contemporary jewellery - In her audacious exhibition, Claire McArdle invites the audience to consume and destroy her precious jewellery.
The herb that must not be named - Divya N writes about a jewellery made with herbs that protects children from harm.
Animita Ayúdame Papito: “So help me, father.” - Vania Ruiz discovers a Chilean folk tradition that she uses to bring her father back into her life.
Vivalto Lungo: Espresso bridal jewellery - We ask Annika Karskens about the origins of her jewellery made from coffee pods.
Of uncertain value: The fragile beauty of epiphytes - Kath Inglis's work reflects the concept "of uncertain value", reflected in the epiphyte jewels carved out of PVC.
Bird, fish or somewhere in between - Sofia Björkman and Karin Roy Andersson together exhibit a series of works that animates discarded materials, re-forming nature out of detritus.
The tree-bird: An alchemy of the heart - Reihane Raei creates healing jewels inspired by the mystery of Persian poetry
The Dirge and the Vital Heat - Nicole Polentas writes about a series of art objects that draw on Aristotle's theory of Vital Heat to reflect on life and death.
Composite bouquet: A plastic heirloom for the future - Vicki Mason seeks to realise the beauty of plastic in ornaments that will endure.
The bauxite challenge: Bioregional thinking and place-based making - Kyoko Hashimoto's place-based jewellery practice makes visible the hidden substances that fuel economic growth.
Neke Moa ✿ How to make deities for everyday use - We interview Neke Moa to learn about being a custodian of pounamu and how she uses it to connect with atua as guiding spirits.
From Aotearoa to Uzbekistan: New Zealand in the Zar Festival of Gold, Bukhara - Finn McCahon-Jones feels the vibe from New Zealand makers who participated in an epic celebration of opulence in Central Asia.
Tea with Abbas: Tibetan jewellery in Nepal - Gary Wornell visits the workshop of Abbas Karim Bhatt, who brings resplendent Tibetan jewellery to the bustle of Kathmandu.
Ka Taka Te Wā – Time Passed - Areta Wilkinson creates jewellery imprinted with stones from her whenua among the braided rivers of Canterbury.
Katheryn Leopoldseder: Ode to restoration - Marian Hosking introduces a jeweller who honours those who sustained the historic nunnery where she works, featuring a rosary for one of its restorers.
Paula Isola ✿ The words to wear it - Our April laurel goes to Argentinean jeweller, Paula Isola, for three brooches that weave a text of desire.
Inner Traces: A dance of three rings - Inner Traces is an elemental dance of metal and flesh. It was performed by Michaela Pegum using only her two hands adorned by three gold rings. She explains how this work came about and what she learnt from it.
When the land becomes a jewel - Yu-Fang Chi describes her Belgian residency when she applied her jewellery weaving technique to the land itself.
Wrapping the present within the past  - From her Bruny Island home in Tasmania, Janine Combes gathers stray objects where memories live.
Heirlooms for distant generations - Clare Hooper re-creates an extended family in found heirlooms.
Battle of the Rings / Ring Smackdown - Melissa Cameron presents an insta-jewellery competition where everyone's a winner.
The currency basket: Investing in a shared world - Bridget Kennedy creates alternative ways to exchange objects of value.
Eyes for Chile 👁️👁️ Ojos Para Chile - Liliana Ojeda and Aranda Feres Ojeda gather eyes and words to make visible the recent political oppression on the streets of Santiago.
Biomater: Life hanging by a thread - Catalina Mena reflects on the exhibition in Chile by Clarisa Menteguiaga, Liliana Ojeda, and Paulina Villalobos, which witnesses the beauty of decay in the gallery.
Juukan Tears Offcuts - In conversation with Tanya Lee, Melissa Cameron learns about the life of the jewellery pieces that were salvaged from her Juukan Tears installation, as a personal mourning for the loss of sacred Aboriginal heritage.
Kan Doenthang: Lost wax to recover a disappearing world - Rudee Tancharoen shares the lost wax casting work made with the village of Baan Pa-Ao for the sake of staying in touch with a grounded way of life.
Tineke Van der Eecken ✿ In the flow - Koral Ward reflects on the flow of matter and form that brings together life and death in the work of Tineke Van der Eecken.
Jin ah Jo ✿ A pipeline to Buddha 🇰🇷 - Jeweller Jin Ah Jo shares an intense lockdown journey that transformed infrastructure into adornment (with Korean text).
Gabbee Stolp ✿ Memories in flux - Sarah Stewart finds the work of Tasmanian jeweller Gabbee Stolp reflects the fleeting beauty that flows down the Derwent River.
Shaabook silver jewellery in Oman: A secret currency of adornment - Amal Al-Ismaeli was inspired by her grandmother to discover a traditional adornment that is designed by women for women.
Vicki Mason ✿ Wattle it be? - Vicki Mason has created a reversible necklace that activates the bounty of wattle blossom enjoyed across the world in sprinter (late winter, early spring).
Frances Stachl ✿ Cheer at hand in COVID times - Keri-Mei Zagrobelna finds an Aotearoa jeweller who can trigger a smile from new COVID rituals.
Punk Rocks ✿ The Hope Pebble - Our August laurel goes to Objects of Mass Distraction, a Singapore collective whose series Punk Rocks features precious jewellery made from found materials ​​
A diamond in the rough: Developing a discourse on contemporary African jewellery  - Papers are invited for a conference in South Africa that seeks to recognise discourse about contemporary jewellery in Africa.
The Body Layer; Semblance and Self - Simon Cottrell presents a curated exhibition of contemporary jewellery that touches on the life of the wearer.
Tepelikler: My Anatolian grandmother’s headdress - Songül Aral recreates the traditional Anatolian gold and silver headdress that connects with her ancestors. 
Whakahoki: Returning to the lunar cycle in Māori culture - Keri-Mei Zagrobelna evokes an ancestor spirit to protect against the chaos of the new moon
Kimiagar wire jewellery - Mehrdad Kolagar writes about his decision to move from architecture to wire jewellery.
Mary Curtis ✿ The wood between our fingers slows us down - Mary Curtis explains how she has primed her jewellery to provide a tool for medication.
Senryu: Three little words make many objects - Sayumi Yokouchi, Mari Ishikawa and Mikiko Minewaki are inspired by the short Japanese poetry of Senryu to make beautiful jewellery.
Tracing trees: Processing land clearing through a jewellery practice - Cara Johnson makes adornment that embodies the complex settler entanglement with the land.
Nature hooks - Jes John writes about earrings made by Jill Hermans for adorning yourself with a beautiful fallen leaf.
Atefe Sadat Mirsane ✿ Marquetry to wear - An Iranian jeweller makes precious adornment out of pieces leftover from the traditional wood mosaic craft of khatam.
Sitaben ✿ A narrative of courage - LOkesh Ghai profiles a bead artisan whose beautiful work reflects an epic commitment to her craft.
Sophie Carnell ✿ Gnat orchid - Our December laurel goes to a jeweller based in Bruny Island, Tasmania, for a silver sculpture inspired by the gnat orchid, whose elegant form clings to the land.
The Heart of the Necklace: A reverse Sleeping Beauty story – 20 December - Listen to stories by Gauri Raje about the bead jewellery by Sitaben Chavda, a unique maker from Ahmedabad.