I stock a small selection of work in Edinburgh’s beautiful Soul Retreat Spa. They were excited for me to bring in some pieces from the new ‘Ukiyo’ collection and wanted to understand the makers process and inspiration. It was nice to have a conversation explaining the essence of the collection and my design process. I hope you enjoy a little insight into the collection and how my work generally comes to life!
Can you tell us about your ‘Ukiyo’ collection?
This collection was inspired by my Japan travels; the inspiration flooded in from various and contrasting sources and I had to find ways of narrowing it down. I chose to focus on the more modern side of Japanese culture for this collection; looking at the modern art scene. I’d visited some digital art museums in Tokyo where I was awe inspired by the flow of colour, the sensory experience and a feeling as though I was not on Earth anymore, like I was transported to a beautiful, magical place. I also paid many visits to Arashiyama in Kyoto, via the Randen train line where the station has literally been transformed into a kimono forest. Being lost in colour and a feeling of excitement, yet feeling so serene in the same moment inspired the collection. I didn’t know those two feelings could be experienced at the same time in one moment. This was the initial drive.
What does Ukiyo mean exactly? It's a Japanese word; 'Ukiyo' literally translates to ‘the floating world’ and means to be ‘detached from the bothers of life’. My original graduate collection plan revolved around the idea of creating a sense of escape for the user/viewer, and because this jewellery collection is an extension of that project it seemed fitting. Like a tribute to the original work. Well, you just graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (yay!), but due to the current crisis work was cut short. How did this affect you/change your original work?
In March we were made to clear out all our graduate work and continue from home. I was the only student in my graduate year creating a vessels/large-scale works collection, whilst the others were making jewellery. I knew I wasn’t able to make vessels from home due to my small home studio not having the suitable tools and equipment and panicked. However, the jewellers also needed large equipment to complete their collections so we were all at a complete loss. I had half-finished vessels, silver sheet left untouched as I was about to begin my sake set when we were removed from the studio. I ended up spending the next two and a half months turning all my physical work into digital form and this also meant my vessels were never going to be ‘real’, instead I had to teach myself how to use Photoshop and improve my CAD skills to make anything look somewhat decent for the final hand-in. I did what I could with my skillset. It was heart-breaking, overwhelming and I think I was having a bit of an emotional breakdown as I saw all my plans and hopes come crashing down on top of a personal situation I'd been struggling to deal with already.
It was a lot of work so I'm grateful I managed to pull it together and get a 2:1 for my overall grade. It’s really disappointing to not have the tangible work completed as I was very excited for my project and hoped to enter it into competitions and potential exhibition events but also to really see what I was capable of as a maker. I really believed in my project, but I took all that inspiration and research and worked with it to create the jewellery line. It was a difficult time for everyone, everywhere but I surprised myself for not giving up when I couldn't see any light at the end of it all. Gaining a BA Hons degree is one of my biggest personal achievements. I feel like a different person now it's all over.
So your jewellery collection was created onward from your graduate vessels collection?
Yes. I’d actually began my graduate collection as a jewellery based idea which I’d worked on over the summer for two months before returning to uni, but I was told it was too premature and advised to explore other things. So it's nice to come full circle and focus on expanding and developing the jewellery ideas I have and am passionate about. The vessels collection ended up being inspired mainly by the traditional side of Japanese culture; looking at mindfulness, the tea ceremony and how sake is used as an offering to the Gods at Shinto shrines. The modern aesthetic to my vessels were inspired by the modern aspect of Japanese culture; the modern art scene and the playfulness of colour. I’d aimed to create a sensory experience, keeping them mindful with the objects through colour, material choices, patterns, textures and weight. I was aiming to remove the user from daily mundane thoughts and take them somewhere more positive, a little escape. I was very excited for this project and hope I can create at least one piece from it someday. I took the modern elements and playfulness of all that research and inspiration to create the jewellery line. I also pulled in organic shapes from nature surroundings within the shrine grounds. It was a bit of an amalgamation of both traditional and modern Japanese culture but the core of it was the emotion and using what I saw to express my emotions.
Where does your inspiration come from other than Japan?
Oddly, my inspiration stems from a feeling before anything else. The feeling inspires me to turn it into something tangible. Perhaps this process has followed me through from my days as a musician (which is what I was doing before I got into metalsmithing) where the only way I would create was through thoughts and emotions. So yes, in this case with the newest collection ‘Ukiyo’ I found inspiration in my surroundings when travelling Japan. It’s a country I’ve been pulled towards my entire life; finally I made my first trip in 2018 and have visited 4 times within 2 years (and would have been a 5th if not for the current situation the world is facing). I have created work from a purely aesthetic angle, no emotion involved, this was usually because I was pushing myself to learn a new technique and it being a one-off piece rather than creating a collection, but usually the feeling of a place begins and leads the entire process. It gives my work meaning.
How do you use a 'feeling' to create new work?
I use my surroundings to find a way to transmute the emotion into something tangible. I document through photographs mainly, looking at colour, shapes and sometimes I will quickly sketch down a form I like. I often take notes of my feelings and what sort of things I’m looking at that are triggering certain feelings. I look back through my travel diary to re-capture emotions also. I later dissect the photographs, sketching forms I like or even tracing parts of an image, often finding forms your eyes normally wouldn’t notice. There are some very distinct shapes in Japanese traditional architecture such as the torii gate within Shinto shrines and Pagodas, or even lantern lit streets, things like this you don’t see in the UK and all these elements create such a stunning atmosphere. So these very predominant and cultural aspects I like to focus on and see what I can do with the shapes and feelings involved, how I can manipulate or re-create them.
Do you think the collection gives that feeling of Japan?
I don’t think so and I wasn’t necessarily aiming for that either. Japans aesthetic is usually very Wabi-Sabi (which put simply, on an aesthetic level means to appreciate beauty in imperfection). With the jesmonite material I’m working with, sometimes imperfections are made; air bubbles are formed or the material splits before fully solidifying, but I actually really love these effects so when they occur I like to work with that piece anyway. But this isn’t the focal point of the collection. I don’t go with the intention of forcing a style out; I follow the flow of what I’m feeling and what I get from the places I’ve experienced. Ultimately, I took what I fell in love with in Japan, physically and emotionally and created something that is mine and I like that the wearer can interpret their own feelings and ideas from the pieces. It’s just my source of happiness and creation but the wearer has their own experience and ideals, just like with music; I may create a melody, a vibe and write lyrics that mean something to me, but the real magic is that the listeners connect to the elements of that song because of how it makes them feel. They aren’t thinking of the artist, they are focusing on how the energy and the words relate to them individually. I love that my jewellery work can have that same effect rather than make people feel what I felt. It’s about them and their take on the piece. That's what I love about what I do.
Stevie
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