Wood or Metal?
My inspiration for this project came from a manifesto written by a famous furniture designer Charlotte Perriand in 1929, entitled ‘Wood or Metal?’, in which she championed metal as a superior material and one that symbolised progress and the modern world. In her view at that time, metal stands for industrialisation and wood stands for craftsmanship. But what would it look like if we put this perception in the world of jewellery?
In this project, I used the way of making crafts to make works that look industrial to show the contrast. Can materials really be defined? Is there a gap between our knowledge of them and the nature of them?
Echoing an Era
2021
Necklace
73cm x 15cm x 12cm
Stainless steel, bicycle chain, horn, maple wood, maraca
Efficiency and Excelsior
2021
Necklace
49cm x 8cm x 5cm
Screws, pins, shower hose, teak wood
Where are we going?
2021
Ring
7cm x 5cm x 7cm
Stainless steel, bicycle bell, cherry wood
Mass Produced by Hand
2021
Ring
5cm x 5cm x 9cm
Screws, stainless steel, pine wood
Photography: Kavieng Cheng
Model: Rose Smith