Jane Dodd’s contemporary jewellery often begins in books. Ideas appear and are then intuitively researched, chased through history. These ideas don’t always stem from jewellery, but also come from art, science, myth, architecture, botany, zoology, mysticism…. Jane works from her studio at her home in Dunedin. She previously spent 16 years as a part of Workshop 6, a shared contemporary jewellery studio in Auckland, after completing a Diploma in Craft Design. Jane has also worked as a library assistant and archivist at the Fine Arts Library at the University of Auckland. She enjoys walks in the New Zealand wilderness, whose flora and fauna can be felt in her work.
Her work references European decorative traditions and the cultures from which they sprang: gothic combinations of sculpted animal and human forms, horn and antler shapes and heraldic devices suggest myth, folklore and fairy tales. Her pieces tell a story but it remains with the wearer to complete this story. Along with gold, silver and precious stones, Jane incorporates materials such as wood, shell and stone into her work.
“…memory and myth, history and culture, landscape and life forms, associations and emotions. I like to make work that resonates in quite a personal but non-specific way with the audience. I am pleased if pieces have a familiarity but also a strangeness.”
