Rachel Blair. Glasgow School of Art. New Graduates 2015

Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Rachel Blair - A Sense of Place
Rachel is a recent graduate from the Glasgow School of Art, 2015. She is a Jeweller, designer, maker from the Northern Isles of Orkney.  She is interested in creating pieces with contain balance in material and tension. Her work is an expression of her constant longing for a sense of belonging. She is interested in the phycology of attachment to place and the memories and thoughts alluded from the feeling of belonging. Her work this past year has been focussed on the idea of a ‘sense of place’, through this she has been investigating her own honesty. Her pieces are true to the original materials; she does not try to conceal construction. The sensitivity of the fragile papers held in by pressure and tension create uneasiness, however aesthetically beautiful. 

She has been working closely with drawing materials in her pieces. Drawing is an integral part of her design process. It is the love of the tangibility and immediacy of a sketchbook, and how private and controlled a sketchbook can be; that is the catalyst to transfer those qualities into her work conceptually and aesthetically. Her pieces are constructed from silver and gold wire frames with tension set papers. These are hand dyed and wound individually to create intricate patterns within the layers. She uses papers to create pieces that have a duality of preciousness, papers that are usually worthless, but when manipulated and set in a precious setting have a much greater meaning. By using paper, her pieces have a limited lifetime. It is the wearing away of the precious papers within a materially precious band that is the interest. The piece is always under tension and stress, but aesthetically complete.


I have been teaching Rachel Blair at Glasgow for the past four years and have watched how her work has grown in confidence and skill.
Her degree body of work focuses on her love of her home, Orkney. The work explores ways of capturing a sense of place and communicating visually her connections to the island. From this exploration of emotions and memories colour and material exploration has become a key component of her work. Through a thorough research investigation into paper and the use of colour Rachel has created complex yet simple pieces using ink and paper. Gradients of colour, washes of blues and browns create warmth and detail in tightly bound paper structures. This is an unconventional choice of materials within a jewellery degree and showcases Rachel’s efforts to challenge convention. /  Jonathan Mathew Boyd, Lecturer Glasgow School of Art, 2015

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Glasgow School of Art 2015 Degree show