Artist's statement
Compressed Recycled Newspaper
This collection of wearable art has come about through a recent re-evaluation of my own practice and working principles. In striving to craft jewellery that is compatible with my views on environmental responsibility and sustainability, I began exploring the idea of restoring value to discarded materials, particularly those which are designed to be disposable. I have always had an affinity with text; newspaper, maps, and pages from old books became an obvious source of raw material.
Newspaper is completely ephemeral, losing its value from new in a matter of only hours. By putting it through a complex process of rolling, compression and manipulation, I produce a new material which can be worked and shaped; transmuting waste into functional and decorative hand-crafted pieces of jewellery.
The printed word
Using newspaper has also allowed me to explore ideas around the use of text to viewers and wearers. For most people, the presence of text on paper invites the viewer to seek messages and meaning in the print. As a dyslexic maker, however, I perceive text as texture. In previous work with these materials, I have used text in different languages. In these cases, I did not understand what was written on the page but liked the style and shapes created on the paper’s surface. In this collection, I have developed techniques to stack the raw material and abrade the surface to reveal complex layers of print that read in reverse and in opposing directions, cross over, overlap, conjoin and intermingle. The meaning and context of the word is blurred and lost, inviting the viewer to see text as I do – not immediately intelligible - and to examine the way in which the viewer or wearer seeks to take meaning from the printed word.