Between Tides: Jewellery by Alan Preston

Between Tides: Jewellery by Alan Preston is a survey of over thirty years’ work by one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary jewellers.
From his earliest work in the 1970s to his achievements as part of the bone stone shell movement and his most recent jewellery using fibre and found materials, Between Tides tracks the ceaseless flow of creativity that informs Preston’s jewellery.
Alan Preston was among the vanguard of contemporary jewellers who, in the early 1980s, took a gentle, under-the-radar craft and elevated it into the realm of art. As one of the founders of the pioneering jewellery collective Fingers, he made jewellery that adapted Pacific materials and motifs, capturing and leading the zeitgeist. Magnificently crafted and backed by an intellectually articulated vision, his pieces have always been coveted and collected. Alan Preston has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and overseas.

Between Tides is the first ever survey of Alan’s work and also one of the few historical surveys of a contemporary New Zealand jeweller. It is beautifully designed with a compelling essay by Damian Skinner, one of New Zealand’s best-known art writers whose recent books include a monograph on Don Binney and a major work on the art of Maori carving. 


Book design: Lisa Williams, Polygon Design