Julie Blyfield: Twice loved

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Julie Blyfield

Twice loved is a new collection of jewellery pieces based on interpretations of the historical patterns inscribed on discarded nineteenth-century ceramic shards and early twentieth-century kimono garments, which I photographed at the History Museum in Tokyo on a recent trip to Japan. Having merged, reworked and translated elements from the Japanese fabrics and the textures and patterns of the ceramic shards, the resulting rich layers of pattern were incorporated into precious items of jewellery. With sterling silver as my preferred choice of material, I use the traditional technique of metal chasing, which is a method of hand texturing the metal surface. Colour has been added, not only to provide contrast, but also a link to the original fabrics and ceramic fragments.

For years I have accumulated old pottery shards retrieved from diggings around the township of Silverton, north of Broken Hill in New South Wales; an area which from the mid to late 1800s was rich in silver mines. Decorated with remnants of landscape scenes, botanical motifs and scrolls of repetitive patterns, the random shards of old English ceramic plates and cups are representative of the everyday ware and domestic life of colonial Australia. The Japanese kimono designs similarly reflect the rich layering of history through the depiction of floral motifs as dynamic figurative and stylised patterns.

As a contemporary jeweller I intend my work to be worn, loved and used and consider this aspect an important step in the design process. I hope that my pieces are valued as they pass from the hand of the creator to the owner, adding new layers of meaning and interpretation.”

- Julie Blyfield