New Designers Exhibition
London, 2022
Anne Reed
Matilda Little
Heather Rajaratnam
Karen Wong
Liz Crow
Nikki Storey
Keren Panthaki
Kate Bruce
We are pleased to showcase our graduating diploma students’ work by participating in the prestigious New Designers 2022 exhibition at The Business Design Centre, London.
New Designers is where the stars of tomorrow are discovered – a place that both inspires and promotes innovation. We are so proud of the students that will be taking part this year in what will be VS Jewellery School’s fifth appearance at the event.
This is a great opportunity for our students to meet industry professionals as well as other graduating students from all over the country and from all creative disciplines. It is a place for making those all important connections as well as the excitement of taking part in what may be our students’ first chance to exhibit their work and receive feedback from their peers and visitors to the show. Previous graduates have benefitted by meeting potential customers, shop owners and gallery proprietors.
We have students graduating at diploma level 3 and 4 and we feel honoured to have helped them develop their creative thinking and technical skills at our school where our ethos is very much on nurturing the individual to achieve creative expression alongside traditional jewellery making techniques.
Please take a look inside at the work of the students taking part this year.
VS Jewellery School London 62-66 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8LE www.vsjewelleryschool.com t: 020 78318874 e:info@vsjewelleryschool.com
A R
Anne Reed
Inside Out – ‘I’m fine’
My collection explores the connection between our inner and outer body and our mind. Exploring the constructs of emotions from an ‘inside-out’ approach, looking at how to portray what we feel – how we express our emotions from within and how these are represented externally.
What forms do they take? What do people see? How are they interpreted?
So often the emotions we express bear no relation to our inner feelings. Despite the complexity, when asked, the simple answer is, “I’m fine”.
During a period of my own confusion I explored the emotions I felt – translating these in forms of mixed media - metals, wax, wire and leather. The collection links the internal heart meridian connecting the hand, neck and chest in the pieces exhibited.
This collection forms part of my level 4 diploma course in Jewellery Manufacture and Design studied at VS Jewellery School in Hatton Garden. My background is not associated with the arts and so this is my first foray into the designing, creating and presenting of a collection.
M L Matilda Little
Hyper-Linked
The Hyper-Linked collection explores our relationship with value. The contrast between tangible and physical values we place upon materials in our world, stirring a sense of unease consequent to the increasing prominence of immaterial value in digital capitalism. Questioning the idea of ‘preciousness’ by combining valued materials like precious stones with worthless pieces of gravel and the raw textures of metal once pulled from the ground. The pieces come together as clusters of material linked to one another, a language of linking and fixing value, similar to that of blockchain currencies.
Coming from a background in painting, Matilda first approached jewellery as a way to bring the characters and forms from her paintings into the three dimensional world. Fascinated by the interplay between objects and the figurative, the role that jewellery plays became integral as a site to question materiality on the body.
A short internship at a Fin-Tech company just after graduating from art school gave Matilda an insight into future ways of viewing value. Making everything by hand from her studio in South London, her work hopes to grapple with the physicality of the objects made and the immaterial ideas behind them.
H R Heather Rajaratnam
Tutela & Potentia
The New Designers Show presents Heather Rajaratnam’s first collection from 2019 - the Tutula* collection. An inspirational trip to the UNESCO world heritage site in Galle, Sri Lanka, resulted in a collection of jewellery to give the wearer a sense of bold confidence.
Heather’s current work is the culmination of her level 3, 4 and 5 diplomas at VS Jewellery School, London, undertaken before and during the global pandemic.
Heather is strongly drawn to create a collection of large scale dramatic pieces (as seen in the Potentia** collection) designed to represent the strong female role models of ancient times; empowering the wearer; giving a sense of protection and drawing on the energy of ancient historical female icons.
Heather’s interest in silversmithing is communicated in her body adornment pieces, inspiring the wearer to levels of high personal confidence and selfassurance. Heather is drawn to bold forms away from the traditional to the more conceptual form of jewellery as an art form.
*Latin Translation: Protection.
**Latin Translation: Power.
K P Keren Panthaki
Surface of Reflection
Keren is a glass bead artist and jeweller, working with soda lime glass and vitreous enamels. Her work is largely influenced by colour, texture and aesthetics taken from the natural world.
Her collection Surface of Reflection is a nod to the Earth Art movement, exploring the idea that we are all ephemeral, but our choices, whilst here, can have a lasting impact on the fragile world.
With a work practise aligned towards conscious responsibility, Keren has created a body of small, textural, pieces of wearable art. Each piece is totally recyclable, aligning with the values that influence her work
L C
Liz Crow Impermanence
The Impermanence collection fills a niche in the market for beautiful, contemporary jewellery design with a purpose of self-care. After a recent health issue, Liz wanted wearable reminders of her own strength in getting through times of change.
Inspired by the power, freedom and effortless beauty of the movement of water which is constantly in flux, yet never loses its essence, each piece is free-cast with molten silver, capturing the movement of the liquid as it cools, in a still, solid form. Immortalising the fleeting; the juxtaposition highlighting the ephemeral nature of life and reminding us of the calm and power we experience when we accept this.
Liz is a yogi and interested in spirituality, philosophy and self care, which are all reflected in the meaning of her jewellery. With a degree in Fine Art Painting, Liz has found a new medium to paint with, using the conduction of the silver chains to create designs with the molten silver.
N S Nikki Storey Play
Nikki is interested in the multi-faceted nature of the individual and how they combine and express their various ‘selves’. The pieces in her Play collection are based on clients' unique selections of three images from a bespoke deck of cards, which Nikki has then interpreted and turned into a jewellery design.
The resulting works are playful, encouraging the wearer to interact with and change them as they see fit. Nikki is interested in a wide range of crafts that feed into her pieces and likes to mix media, using remnant and repurposed materials wherever possible to make each item unique. An anthropology graduate, Nikki has a long-held interest in individuality and what makes a person who they are.
K B Kate Bruce Arrival
In the collection Arrival, Kate demonstrates the journey of life and its stages. She creates jewellery with fluid organic shapes using the lost wax casting process as well as angular 3D rigid pieces created using fine wire and traditional soldering techniques, re-creating the different aspects of life’s journey.
The shapes in the collection mimic how we move and flow in an organic rhythm at times and at other times we are forced into positions that may not be comfortable but are necessary for growth.
The collection illustrates that all times of life are precious and there is beauty at every point, even the tough times - it’s all a matter of perspective.
K W Karen Wong
Duality
Karen Wong is fascinated by both science and art. The only scientist born into an otherwise artistic family, Karen seeks to make sense of these seemingly polarised entities by exploring their contradictory qualities. Her collection Duality combines bolder features with more organic shapes to represent those two disparate elements.
A penicillin laden petri dish and Lycoris Radiata are used in this instance as the main symbolic representations. Penicillin, a chance discovery made by Alexander Fleming in 1928, has saved millions of lives yet could cause harm if used inappropriately; Lycoris Radiata, regarded as an ominous flower in Asian legends, yet conversely, may also possess beneficial medicinal properties.
