Nina Ellis
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nina Ellis uses a handmade chisel to achieve fine textures and lines in her work. This gives the patterns in each piece a beautiful irregularity so that, as in nature, no two designs will ever be the same. Nina has studied Product Design at NMIT TAFE and Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT University. She is based in the Pieces of Eight workshop in Fitzroy North, of which she is also a founding member, and has now been making jewellery for over a decade. Nina researches entomology collections, fossil records and the history of botanical illustration. Her contemporary jewellery is informed by her exploration of the ways in which history has recorded and documented nature.
Nina works predominantly in mild steel, fine and sterling silver and gold. Often overlooked botanical forms such as the tiny leaves and touch of colour in the humble alfalfa sprout, the fine lines found on close inspection of a wheat stalk, and the folds of pressed flower petals are among the inspiration for her jewellery.
