Eileen Moylan

Jewellery Designer & Goldsmith Cork

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Blog
    • Other Projects
  • Contact
  • Unique handmade Engagement, Wedding & Eternity Rings – Perfect for you
  • Jewellery & Silverware
You are here: Home / Archives for silver trends

Bling for your buck.

12.06.2010 by Eileen Moylan //

With the Irish national budget only a day away and Christmas shopping on everyone’s mind. I decided to go in search of some recession-chic jewellery. You’ll be delighted to hear the gold and silversmiths didn’t disappoint!

Andy Cooperman, Bling Bling
Andy Cooperman, Bling Bling

The jeweller  Andy Cooperman has a collection of work looking at the effect of magnification. In this recession friendly pendant he takes a small diamond and sets it beautifully with a 7x lens to magnify the stone. So a diamond which may be considered modest, with a little help from a lens looks unaffordable. A perfect illusion in these frugal times!

Sarah Hood, Savannah Necklace
Sarah Hood, Savannah Necklace
Sarah Hood, Sanibel Island Rings
Sarah Hood, Sanibel Island Rings

The other jeweller I found was Sarah Hood. I loved the use of organic objects in her jewellery. The acorn ring and necklace above are really good examples of combining precious metals with found objects.  What Scrooge would deprive you of her jewellery when these jewels really do grow on trees?!

Christine Gandernack, Illusions of Grandeur
Christine Gandernack, Illusions of Grandeur

I found this piece called ‘Illusions of Grandeur’ in a book I have called ‘500 Necklaces‘. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any more information on the maker or other pieces in the collection. I love the detail of this piece and marvel at the fact that she went to the effort of cutting out each little section by hand. This attention to detail is what makes this piece work so well.

Hopefully this has proven that we don’t need a large budget to adorn ourselves with jewels. As long as there are creative makers out there we will always have an alternative.

Categories // My Inspirations Tags // Andy Cooperman, Christine Gandernack, contemporary jewellery, Designer, goldsmith, Sarah Hood, silver ring, silver trends, silversmith

16th Silver Triennial

11.10.2010 by Eileen Moylan //

Having heard that the winner of the 16th Silver Trienial had been announced I went in search of some news of the competition. This International competition was set up by the Gesellschaft fur Goldschmiedekunst and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus in Hanau, or for those of you who don’t speak German, The Association for Goldsmiths Art and the German Goldsmiths House, Hanau. The exhibition has been running every three years since 1965 to showcase the latest trends and techniques in silversmithing. The only criteria is that the pieces must be hand made, executed in silver and cannot be items of jewellery. This year they selected 158 artists from 20 countries which was then whittled down to 83 participants for the traveling exhibition. You would think with that many people involved it would be pretty easy to get some more information on the Internet. Surprisingly there seems to be very little written on the exhibition, which is really disappointing considering I had gone to the effort of typing (and spelling correctly) Gesellschaft fur Goldschmiedekunst into google! It did throw up some German websites which mentioned the competition but that was it. I even stumbled across a Korean website that had a piece on the show but brilliant and all as google translator is, it’s reading of Korean silversmithing was poor at best.

Astrid Keller, Vasen, Silver 2008-10
Astrid Keller, Vasen, Silver 2008-10

Despite all these obstacles I dug up some images of some of the winning entries. The main prize was awarded to Astrid Keller from Bremen with her collection of monochrome vases. These vessels are formed by distorting sheet silver which has been carefully folded. She uses white and blackened silver to highlight the forms and curves of the pieces. I love seeing pieces like this that immediately make you question how they created these forms and cause you to pick apart the technique used. I’m still getting my head around how she kept the beautiful folds while finishing the pieces.

Nilton Cunha, The Four Winds, Silver
Nilton Cunha, The Four Winds, Silver

The other main prize went to Belgian artist Nilton Cunha for his silver vessel ‘ The Four Winds’. The real strength of this piece is the technical ability it displays. He manages to marry geometric and organic forms seamlessly. I like the fact that even though it looks like a very sleek piece he seems to have left evidence of the hammer marks on the surface which really softens the form. While the simplicity of the piece is enriched by the play of light and shadow on the silver. Since you’re not likely to find much about it anywhere else here are some more images of other entrants. These images were found on www.klimt02.net

Ja-Kyung Shin, Schale Reunion, 2010
Ja-Kyung Shin, Schale Reunion, 2010
Stefen Strube, Trinkgefasse, Silver & Concrete
Stefen Strube, Trinkgefasse, Silver & Concrete

Categories // My Inspirations Tags // contemporary silverware, Eileen Moylan, international silver triennial, silver sculpture, silver techniques, silver trends, silversmith

© 2022 Moylan Works Ltd

Registered in the Republic of Ireland

Human-Friendly Sitemap

Copyright © 2023