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Artist's Statement

Mara Balode is a Jewellery Artist and Maker who graduated with a BA (Hons) in Silversmithing and Jewellery from Glasgow School of Art in 2017. In 2016 she was awarded Gold Prize in the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Awards, ‘Raw Pearls’ Jewellery Competition. Mara also received a Precious Metal Bursary from Goldsmiths Company London in 2017. Her works have been exhibited internationally in USA, Japan, Italy and Latvia. During her third year at Glasgow School of Art Mara completed a three months’ exchange program at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Tokyo, Japan where she started to explore use of transparent materials and themes surrounded by light and illusions. This has triggered further development in her creative practice and was an important experience - a turning point for the development of her work. 

Mara’s inspiration and influences include exploring the relationship between light and shadow. Her aim is to depict an impression of a world vanishing in the sunlight by using textile-like structures to create sculptural jewellery. In her work, she is achieving movement by weaving together small details with nylon tread. These details contain imagery from photographs and are juxtaposed with transparent, translucent and opaque materials.? Using shadow as the defining element of an object, her jewellery creates an ephemeral world that can only exist in contrast to light. Her work aims to draw attention to the small things often overlooked in our daily life.