Interpreting lived experiences through the contemporary jewellery of Beverley Price: A case study

Contemporary jewellery serves as a form of self-expression, creating new aesthetics and meanings for wearable adornment through innovative processes and materials. South African contemporary jewellers frequently draw inspiration from their lived experiences, reflecting the country’s rich natural, cultural, social, and political landscapes. However, scholarly analysis of its thematic, conceptual, and interdisciplinary aspects remains limited. This article addresses this gap by examining how lived experience is expressed through the contemporary jewellery practice of South African practitioner, Beverley Price. Using a single case study, it interprets Price’s work, Nelson Mandela neckpiece - A concentric chronology of his life, through an integrated theoretical framework combining life history research, contemporary jewellery studies, and hermeneutic phenomenology.

The article situates Price’s creative practice within her socio-political and cultural context, highlighting how personal experience and political awareness intersect in her jewellery. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s (1992) theory of narrative identity, the article argues that Price’s work embodies both idem and ipse identities, reflecting continuity and transformation in her self-conception. The analysis demonstrates how contemporary jewellery can serve as a form of political engagement and meaning-making by materially reinterpreting political symbols, communicating ideological affiliation, and positioning identity within post-apartheid South African discourse.


Introduction
Jewellery is commonly perceived as an object of adornment; however, in contemporary practice, it has evolved into a medium of narrative and artistic inquiry. Unlike commercial jewellery, which is often mass-produced and associated with luxury consumption and status, contemporary jewellery prioritises artistic authorship and conceptual inquiry. Lignel (2006:1) defines contemporary jewellery as a craft-based design practice and a form of individual expression, acknowledging its craft origins while recognising its evolution to reflect modern trends and technologies. Skinner (2013:10) similarly describes the field as a ‘self-reflexive studio craft practice oriented to the body’, emphasising the significance of hand-working skills and the intimate connection between jewellery and human physicality. Scarpitti (2021:60) expands on these perspectives, describing contemporary jewellery as multi-faceted objects that pose questions and express concepts, thereby becoming narrative and relational subjects that connect practitioners, wearers, and viewers through personal, cultural, or societal narratives. Within this conceptual frame, contemporary jewellery becomes an artefact of self-reflection, translating lived experience and the practitioner’s responses to cultural, social, emotional, and environmental contexts into wearable forms (Fenn 2017:8).

While there are extensive studies on contemporary jewellery in international scholarship, there has been limited sustained academic engagement with South African practice and its broader design history (Den Besten 2012:7-8; Fenn 2019 a:1; Pretorius 2016:42; Skinner 2013:184). This lack of critical discourse hinders a deeper understanding of the thematic, conceptual, and interdisciplinary perspectives present in local practice. The absence of South African discourse is particularly regrettable, as Den Besten (2012:26) points out that contemporary jewellery can reflect a place and culture by incorporating indigenous themes, materials, and techniques. In a post-apartheid context rich with social, political, and cultural narratives, South African practitioners have significant potential to express a distinct identity through their work.

This article addresses this gap by presenting a case study of South African contemporary jeweller Beverley Price. The article explores how her life history influences her practice and how her experiences intersect with various social, political, and cultural contexts, all of which are reflected in her creative work. Rather than analysing multiple works, this single case study provides a “thick description”, offering in-depth insights into her practice and enhancing the understanding of her identity (Geertz 1973:9-10).

The article first provides an overview of South African contemporary jewellery to position Price’s life and practice within local and global contexts. A brief account of Price’s life history is then presented, highlighting her formative experiences. An interpretive analysis then follows of one of her key works, Nelson Mandela neckpiece – A concentric chronology of his life, drawing on life history research, contemporary jewellery, and hermeneutic phenomenology. The article concludes by considering how Price’s lived experiences contribute to broader discourses of meaning-making in contemporary jewellery within a South African context. The interpretive case study illustrates how contemporary jewellery functions as a narrative, and how the formal features are intentionally selected to support the personal and socio-political intent of the work.


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Supervisors of the paper:

> Anne Mastamet-Mason
Department of Fashion Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
masona@tut.ac.za (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1423-2075)

> Nalini Moodley-Diar
Faculty of Arts and Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
moodleydiarn@tut.ac.za (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5364-0455)


 

About the author

Nina Newman is a South African jewellery designer, practitioner and lecturer in the Jewellery Design and Manufacture Programme at Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria. Her practice and research focus on contemporary jewellery, with particular interest in design processes, material exploration and the narratives that inform jewellery practice. She recently completed her doctorate, which examines the life histories and work of selected South African women contemporary jewellery practitioners. Her research contributes to the documentation and interpretation of contemporary jewellery in South Africa. She has exhibited her work and published research on jewellery design and contemporary jewellery.

newmann@tut.ac.za