PitstopX Jewellery Blog
London Jewellery Exhibitions
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Penny: Posted on 27 April 2013 14:51
There are some exciting jewellery, design and craft related events & shows coming up over the next month or so, so I thought I'd give a brief round up here. I'm looking forward to visiting all of these if I have time - do let me know if there's an upcoming show I've missed out!!
Hot Glass, 19 April-25 May - Contemporary Applied Arts, Percy Street
Prototypes & Experiments VII, 3 May-15th June - Aram Gallery, Covent Garden
Special, 8-20th May - Lesley Craze Gallery, Clerkenwell
Collect, 10-13th May - Saatchi Gallery
Made in Clerkenwell, 16-19th May - Open Studios at Craft Central in Clerkenwell
Palace Art & Craft Fair, 17-19th May - Fulham Palace, SW6
Cockpit Arts Open Studios, June 2013 - Clerkenwell
London Jewellery Week - 7-16th June - events will be happening all over London during this week - I'll write another post specifically about this and some of the highlights I'm most looking forward to nearer the time! |
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Penny: Posted on 16 November 2012 20:23
As well as the lovely Noon Mitchelhill - one of my tutors at the Working Men's College where i'm studying this year, there were many jewellers with beautiful work on display. I always love Daphne Krinos, Lesley Strickland and Gilly Langton's work, but the artists I'd not seen before that particularly stood out for me included; - Atelier DVB / Donna Brennan had a range of gorgeous encrusted jewellery - with precious metal bases claw settings and frames encrusted with gemstones in clusters like corals infesting a shipwreck, giving a very organic feel.
- Daniel Gallie had a collection including belt buckles and necklaces, but what caught my eye was his stunning silver and pearl rings. Carved in wax, then cast, these swirling organic shapes are stunning, highlighted by the brightly coloured pearls.
- Diane Turner's silver and wood jewellery is very striking, combining strong geometric wooden shapes with organic natural sections and electroplated silver highlights and frames.
 - Dot Sim and Jill Newbrook both had very different but equally geometric jewellery, exploring the simplicity and effectiveness of geometric forms - Dot Sim with wire and lines, Jill etching patterns inspired by her graphics background onto geometric forms created from silver sheet.
- Sarah Parker Eaton is a jeweller I was excited to see again - having seen woodworker Louise Hibbert (who Sarah occasionally collaborates with) recently at Made London, it was great to see Sarah here - I love her very organic jewellery, all inspired by the fantastic shapes and structures of plankton.
The show is on all of this weekend (17 & 18th November 2012) from 11am to 6pm at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London and is well worth a visit. |
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Penny: Posted on 27 October 2012 17:54
I visited Made London this weekend and had a fabulous time exploring the four floors of contemporary design work in this beautifully renovated old chapel. The space itself was interesting enough to merit a visit on it's own with the huge crypt space with galleried mezzanine and the beautiful ceilings, mosaic floor and stained glass windows in the main hall. I was of course there to look at the artwork, however, particularly looking at the jewellers, and while all the exhibitors were of a fantastic quality and had some very exciting work, the ones that stood out for me were; - Janet Wass - I've not seen her work before and I really loved the patterns and delicate shape of her Plume collection using Acrylic and Silver. The black and white colour scheme gave a lovely effect which made the simple patterns stand out beautifully.
- Louise Hibbert - As always, her beautiful decorated wooden boxes, bottle stoppers, jewellery and sculptures were looking gorgeous - inspired by the natural world, plankton and bugs, these are really lovely collectors pieces.
- Katharina Eder - Another jeweller I'd not seen before - I loved the colour and shapes of her bead work - being a fan of stitched bead work and doing quite a lot myself, it was exciting to see bead work at a show like this.
- Gilly Langton - More colourful and beautiful work - I particularly loved her woven elastic and silver bangles - the unusual material combination and the colour this injects into the minimal forms of her jewellery is great, as well as playing to my love of using braiding and related techniques to create jewellery forms.
- Teri Howes - Another jeweller who uses textile techniques but translated into metal - Teri creates gorgeous intricate lacy elements in her work, around simple organic shapes using crochet techniques. I particularly loved the spiral forms in silver.
There were of course many other jewellers including J ed Green's lovely glass jewellery made up of decorated pods and spheres, Daphne Krinos whose work I love, with her simple geometric shapes and unusually cut gemstones, Elizabeth Bone with her beautiful geometric silver shapes and Alan Craxford, a silversmith who was showing a fantastically intricate selection of paper cut artworks.  There were of course a vast array of other artists, working in everything from fashion, bags, shoes, furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass and more and the whole show was well worth the visit - I hope this will become a regular event - I loved the mix of some of my favourite artists and some new ones I'd not discovered before! |
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Penny: Posted on 26 October 2012 11:01
 Later today I’m off to visit Made London – an exciting, large selling exhibition of work by contemporary craft artists, including jewellery, textiles, ceramics, interior accessories, clothes, bags, shoes and more… I can’t wait to see what exciting designs and designers are there and to check out the current trends and hopefully talk to one or two of the makers about their work. Made London is open today, and all weekend at One Marylebone, NW1 4AQ – a converted chapel opposite Great Portland Street tube station. Have a look at www.madelondon.org for more information and details about the designers taking part. |
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Penny: Posted on 11 October 2012 20:43
  Firstly, Goldsmiths Fair, I went last week to see the first
set of exhibitors and today to see the second week’s selection. Some truly
beautiful work as always! I loved the almost crystalline looking finish to Ute
Decker’s silver bangles, Brian Eburah’s anodised niobium pieces had beautiful
colouring that enhanced his interesting shapes and Maud Traon’s unique
encrusted and plated resin pieces were fabulously chunky and unusual. My
favourite, and the lady whose work I always look forward to seeing was Daphne
Krinos, she had some pieces using my favourite gemstone – Tourmaline in Quartz,
as well as some gorgeous rings with large cabochons in oxidised silver
surrounded by flat petal like plates of metal. Too many other fabulous
jewellers to mention here or I’ll just end up re-producing the full list of
exhibitors ( see this here) but one last one that I loved was Anna Lorenz and a
set of layered cut out brooches that she has created. The show as always was a real inspiration in the
quality of design as well as the uniformly perfect standard of workmanship.
 After Goldsmiths Fair, I headed up to Angel to see the
Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair – again a multi week event – this
was the first week, with the show focussing on fine art and painting (each
weekend this month, the show focuses on a different selection of disciplines).
There were as always some beautiful artworks on show including work by Dorit Braun & Catherine Barnes that I particularly
liked. It's open again with different exhibitors every weekend this month, so do pop by if you're in the area - always well worth a look!
 On Sunday I was out and about again, demonstrating on the
Braid Society stand at the Antique Textiles Fair at Chelsea Old
Town Hall – I’d not been
to this event before and it was an interesting day. Hopefully Jacqui Carey and
I managed to convert or at least interest a good few new braiders – it was
great to have an excuse to talk to people about braiding and encourage them to
have a go.
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Penny: Posted on 28 September 2012 13:47
If you've read my other posts, you'll know I've been looking forward to Goldsmiths Fair - it's one of my favourite events of the year and a fantastic showcase of the top contemporary jewellery and silversmithing.
This year's event certainly didn't disappoint - I spent a long time exploring the show this week and my highlights from the first week (the exhibitors change at the weekend so the second week is a whole new show) included;
 Catherine Martin - as always I'm absolutely intrigued by her gorgeous intricate braided gold and platinum wire creations - and this year she has started to include delicate gemstones as well in her designs.
Jenny Deans - I particularly loved the movement and flowing lines in Jenny's sculptural pieces made of repetitive wire arcs, threaded onto wire and steel cables, the playful shapes (and yes - you can fiddle with them to adjust the shapes too) are lovely.
 Charlotte De Syllas - I was very excited to see Charlotte exhibiting here - I love unusual gemstones, and she specialises in creating and carving beautiful gems, using simple settings that enhance and show off the beauty in the stones.
Wally Gilbert - his fantastic chalices and dishes are just beautiful - making me think of medieval feasts and luxury celebrations - these detailed silver pieces are superbly tactile, and Wally will encourage passers by to handle them.
 Elizabeth Bone - geometry at it's most beautiful, Elizabeth created statement jewellery in silver and other precious metals using geometric forms, folds and a precision eye for detail
 Vicki Ambery Smith - I love architectural details and these gorgeous little architectural models created using sheet silver to replicate buildings from London and all around the world, transformed into rings and other jewellery are fantastic. Sophia Mann - again, my love of colourful and unusual stones drew me to this stand - Sophia's gorgeous organic gold and silver forms create a base for extravagant embellishments of strings of stitched gemstones and shells.
 Melissa Rigby - the stunning textures on Melissa's jewellery caught my eye - an expert enameller, she creates textures and patterns on her silver jewellery using a combination of enamelling and gold plating to create beautiful effects that she then combines with interesting and unusual gemstones.
You can see these artists and all the other exhibitors, along with images of their work on the Goldsmiths Company website - and don't forget there's still plenty of time to visit - the Fair is on at Goldsmiths Hall, near St Pauls in London until the 7th October. |
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Penny: Posted on 19 September 2012 00:41
It’s the season to sparkle – with London Fashion Week happening at the moment, the London Design Festival and the start of the run up to Christmas; jewellery, craft and related art shows are popping up all over the place! Here’s a brief round up of some of the ones I’m most looking forward to over the next couple of months… Old Truman Brewery, London 20-23 September This is one of the largest design trade shows taking place as part of London Design Festival – full of over 200 exhibitors showing contemporary design at it’s best through interior products such as furniture, ceramics, lighting and LOTS more, including this year a special CRAFT MARKET gallery as a special feature with the focus on craftsmanship and design. Candid Arts, Angel, London October 2012 – Free This fair is a great place to stop by – each weekend in October there will be a different selection of art and design work on display – week 1 is Painting, Sculpture and the Moving Image, week 2 is Illustration, Graphics and Printmaking, week 3 is Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery and Accessories, week 4 is Furniture, Ceramics and Glass. I’m especially looking forward to this as I’ll be exhibiting my jewellery as part of week 3, but apart from that, I’m still excited about visiting this show – I’ve attended for quite a few years and it’s always a great show with a varied selection of exciting work, whatever weekend you pop by! Goldsmiths Hall, City of London 24-30 Sept and 2-7 Oct – £7 one week, £12 two weeks If you’re interested in the highest quality fine jewellery and metalwork from the best contemporary designers and craftspeople, then this is an un-missable event. Held over two weeks (the exhibitors all change after the first week, so if you visit both weeks you see a completely different show) this is a real showcase of all the most beautiful high end jewellery and silversmithing. Great for shopping if you’ve got a special person to buy for (or yourself of course) or of course for inspiration and to see the current trends and styles, or just to explore and admire the showcase of top quality craftsmanship and beautiful jewellery. One Marylebone, London 26-28 October – £10 on the door This is a new event that will be showcasing the best in contemporary craft and artwork with textiles, jewellery, ceramics, furniture, fashion and much more in this unusual converted church venue – I’m almost as keen to see inside the venue as I am to see the artwork on show as I’ve passed the venue many many times and it looks like a really interesting space! There are some great artists lined up to exhibit and sell their work, so put this in your diary now… National Theatre Foyer, London 5 November – 6 January – Free Beautiful, colourful and inventive – Dazzle takes over one of the foyer areas at the National Theatre on the Southbank every winter to showcase the work of their brilliant jewellery designers, including work by fresh new jewellers and a special showcase of invited artists as well. Image here is of work by Daphne Krinos, one of my favourite artists, who will be exhibiting at Dazzle. I’ll be compiling a new list of upcoming shows every month or two with new shows and events coming up that I’m excited about so keep an eye out here on my blog for more updates. There are many other great shows, big and small, and I don't have enough time or space to cover everything, so if you have an event coming up that you're excited about, do post a comment here to share it! |
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Penny: Posted on 17 September 2012 14:12
 Something I look forward to every year is the jewellery industry trade show - International Jewellery London (IJL). This year's event was just a couple of weeks ago. A showcase of jewellers from small individual designer / makers to large multinational companies, as well as jewellery suppliers of everything from CAD systems, tools to packaging, display and of course gem dealers selling gorgeous gemstone beads in all shapes and sizes to cut and faceted stones, beautiful coloured gems as well as top quality diamonds.  IJL is the biggest UK event for the jewellery trade, held at the beginning of September every year at Earls Court. It takes place over 3-4 days and is a fantastic place to go for inspiration, to stock up on gemstones, to meet tool and display / packaging suppliers and have a look at their new products and of course to see a huge amount of fantastic jewellery, from classic traditional designs to the most cutting edge new designers and keep up to date with the latest industry trends. There are seminars each day on different topics of interest to the industry and runway shows featuring some of the key trends and designers of the season.  My highlights of the show this year were all in the Design Gallery area and included; Sarah Packington's colourful acrylic jewellery, Rosina Beech, Quarter Angel’s gorgeous London collection featured in the Kick Start area - as well as Sima Vaziry’s opulent gemstones and Rachel Galley’s Allegro collection of stylish silver jewellery, as well as of course one of my favourite gemstone dealers Joias where I picked up some lovely unusual cabochons that will appear in my jewellery over the next few months.  This show is open to trade only and you need to pre-register with your business details for the show, so if you’re a jeweller or related business, put next year’s dates – 1-4 September 2013 in your diary now, plan yourself plenty of time to look around, as the show is really huge, and check out their websitefor updates on next year’s plans and reviews of this year’s event. |
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Penny: Posted on 08 July 2012 11:56
 I spent an inspiring afternoon last week at ‘New Designers’, the UK’s most important exhibition for graduate designers and I wanted to share here some of the artists that were highlights of the show for me. Taking place over two weeks and now in it’s 27 year, New Designers is an event full of innovation & inspiration. I always try and make time to visit this show, particularly in the first week to see the Jewellers and Metalwork and see the exciting new work on show. This year was as exciting as usual, there was far too many fantastic ideas to talk about them all here; – I was excited to also see a display from Loughborough University (where I studied) and I haven’t been able to find for the last few years. Some of the individual jewellers that particularly stood out for me include the following; - Anna Walsh – super stylish and very fun – play games with your fashion – the ultimate solution for anyone who always fiddles with their jewellery!
- Fern Jelleyman – bright, fun & colourful braided necklaces inspired by climbing ropes and accessories
- Frances Andrews – totally brilliant – stick on temporary jewellery transfers from her ‘Faking It’ collection – I love them!
- Lydia Miriam Jones – fantastic statement African inspired necklaces using rope and other unusual materials to create stunning effects
- Olivia Hope Charalambous – love the repeated forms in her jewellery, especially the effervescent necklaces of silver cups with little flashes of colour
- Stephanie Walton – stunning & colourful moulded polymer bangles and rings – just love these bright colours and the shapes
- Tyra Jane – I particularly loved the simple but beautiful, sci-fi inspired shapes in her stylish bangles AND they glow in the dark too…
There was also a lot of fantastic work by textile and ceramic artists when I visited (more disciplines on show the following week too) but the show is so big I ran out of time to look at everything – there’s only so much great input my brain can take in one day! Look out for these jewellers in the future and make a date to visit New Designers next July to see next year's graduates! I highly recommend it either for inspiration for your own work, to check out the latest trends and buy from the newest up and coming designers! |
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Penny: Posted on 11 June 2012 15:04
 Whether you’re looking for inspiration,
a fun day out, the latest in contemporary jewellery design to wear or add to
your collection, the biggest designer names or just to find out a bit more
about how jewellery is made, there’ll be an event for you as part of London
Jewellery Week, this week long celebration of jewellery.
Starting today, from 11—17 June events
all around the city will celebrate London’s
unique heritage and reputation for cutting edge jewellery design, featuring all
the top British designers, including a special show of Wendy Ramshaw’s work,
one of the UK’s
most recognised and well known modern artists.
Check out the London Jewellery Week
website for full details of all the events going on this week, there will be
events all across London.
The highlights will include; - Wendy Ramshaw’s Rooms of Dreams, at the Terrace Rooms at Somerset
House, FREE, 11 – 17
- Morley Jeweller’s Summer Show, at Morley College, 61 Westminster Bridge Rd, FREE, 11 – 17
- Luxe by Me, at Chelsea
Old Town
Hall, FREE, 12 June
- The Jewellery Show London (Trade
Only) at Somerset
House, 12 & 13
- 14 Carat, at the Craft Central Galleries in Clerkenwell, FREE, 12
– 16
- JeDeCo's
Summer in the City at Craft Central’s Cornershop in Clerkenwell,
FREE, 12 – 17
- Treasure,
the flagship event of the week will be a major exhibition held at Somerset
House, 15 – 17
- JewelEast at Spiralfields Market, FREE, 15 – 17
Do also check out Cockpit Arts Open Studios, which is also on this week and will include a number of jewellers as well as other great artists, in Clerkenwell, FREE, 15 - 17 |
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