When Robert and Grant met at a mutual friend’s BBQ on March 9, 1992, neither of them was particularly enthusiastic about going at the time. It’s funny how fate plays its own hand in things sometimes. A few days afterwards, Grant told a friend that he’d met the man he was going to spend the rest of his life with…
“…design comes into it. I see the design as the functional aspect and the art is the creative aspect. Jewellers are a bit of everything anyway: they’re designers, they’re engineers, they’re alchemists, they’re artists, they’re craftspeople.”
Doug and Chloe share a love of nature and the Australian landscape, particularly the splendour of Western Australia’s sunburnt national parks—wildflowers, red rocks carved by the elements over millennia, knotted trees and long white clouds. Doug was preparing to ask Chloe to marry him. Camilla Gough conceived an original ring in her own aesthetic, which spoke of the couple’s shared love of the Western Australian landscape.
When I started enamelling, I had no idea it was going to be a career. I started because it was a passion and I just wanted to do it. I didn’t do it setting out to achieve anything in particular but then people started coming to me asking to buy things I’d made and also asking to learn how to work with enamel. One Moomba parade I was asked to decorate part of a float, which was the first commission I ever had. Word gets around, I suppose…
“I suppose as a result of studying and working within psychology I’m quite analytical about my creative process and the creative process in general. I often think about how it translates to understanding yourself in a wider context. For me the creative process is time to contemplate and time for personal expression…”
“I think in the past people used stories a lot more to understand their own human condition. It helps explain what we go through, and I think we’ve always done that…in our modern world we’re a little bit…well, we’ve somewhat lost touch with those things. I like to make jewellery that can resonate with someone and their own story—giving them space to think about where their story fits in with things…”
“On good days or bad days you maintain a level of self-reflection, wondering what to do with yourself. That leads to the workshop: making, and having something to work towards. So you feel like you’ve got a purpose and you’re being productive. But, in a way, it’s also a good form of distraction.”
“…if I was in Korea I don’t think I could produce this kind of work, probably because the influences in each place are so different. If you’ve always lived in one place you’re not as likely to really see your surroundings…to take a close look.”
“Making jewellery in a ‘modern’ sense is really important to me. I feel like there is a lot of jewellery and a lot of ideas that have been around for a very long time. Conceptually I seek to take things to the next step in time…something that’s really of the moment, rather than something that’s relating to things in the past. I always try to make something that looks forward.”
“The only thing better than a ring is a stack of rings…”
“The Epic of Gilgamesh reminds me that humans have a shared collective consciousness and that contemporary parallels can be discovered within ancient stories. These myths and stories with their use of archetypal symbols can even now still shed an interesting light on what it means to be human…”
“I find real beauty in these bottle tops and other objects. I sometimes feel they are more interesting than traditionally cut precious stones. Although they are mass-produced, once placed in a different context they can exhibit a unique beauty and character.”
“…I am most interested in human beings, the ironic things we do, the way we fail each other and how amazing we are at the same time. I am interested in exploring what is eternal as opposed to what degrades or perishes and which of these two notions each of us invests in during our lives.”
“Sometimes I will just go to the library and sit and look at pictures. I actually find I’m most inspired when I’m travelling and jetlagged. I wake up at 3 in the morning; the TV’s crap and I get out some paper and start drawing…”
“There’s so much jewellery in the world, but there’s only one me. The jewellery I make comes from everything that I know. Hopefully the end result carries some of that. It needs to look old and like it’s lived through the process of it’s making…”
“…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.”
“Making a cone or dome becomes a personal challenge, then I will start joining them together to make a necklace, bracelet or pendant. Quite often I will make something that starts off as one shape, like a geometric shape, then I will start multiplying the shape to become much larger…”
“My process for the work in ‘KODAMA (return to me)’ was like communicating with these existing materials. I see the objects and they respond to me through their shape, color and texture to bring form to each item. I transform them into imaginary plants, creatures, and habitats which they may have belonged to somewhere in the past…”
“First, I draw patterns on my computer. I have many, many patterns; it’s a continual drawing process. Not until I string the piece do I know how big it is. It’s like an architectural plan, with sections or elevations. I just have to work with the plan and make it into something that I enjoy.”
“I want to make with my own hands…I have no interest in getting pieces made for me, singly or in bulk. Sitting at the bench and creating is where the magic of the handmade object is situated: the subtle adjustments of form, the irregularities introduced by the hand…”
“Amulets and talisman fascinate me; their form and shape and the materials they are made from. Jewellery has a spirituality and emotion connected to it. I like to explore the connection of established practices such as spirituality or tribal symbolism to pieces of jewellery, and look at the personal aspect of why we imbue so much into it…”
“I love to make things that people want to touch, hold and wear and my work reflects a variety of influences and obsessions. I have an interest in the sentimental nature of jewellery and the miniature object…I am also interested in investigating an idea of ‘Australian-ness’ and I enjoy playing with cultural stereotypes to investigate notions of national identity…”
“I’m not dictated by fashion but at the same time you make for a current environment. I don’t actively seek inspiration, I find it in everything around me…”
