‘Adorn’ – The Court Cupboard Gallery

Last week I visited The Court Cupboard Gallery for the second time as the jewellery exhibition ‘Adorn’ is now open and I have to say it was looking great! There was some really fantastic jewellery alongside mine and I was really pleased with my display.

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Beside the cabinet of my work you can also see some of my sketches of the beaches, islands and rocks of the south-west coast of Scotland as well as some of my design drawings.
From these you can see how my ideas have developed and the relationship between the designing and making. I hope this adds insight into how much I love the things that inspire me and what I make from that.

Alongside my work there are wonderful collections of jewellery made from various materials – gold, silver, textiles, enamel and recycled materials – by 6 other lovely artists:
Rhi Frankton, Annabel Neilson, Bonnie Mackintosh, Ann Oldfield, Harriet Stiles and Louise O’Neill.

Follow The Court Cupboard Gallery on their Facebook page to see more from this exhibition – they have been sharing photos and artist info every day.

‘Adorn’ Exhibition

The jewellery exhibition ‘Adorn‘ opens at The Court Cupboard Gallery in Abergavenny today.
It displays the work of seven jewellers including myself. The wide range of work demonstrates the disparate nature of contemporary jewellery today. The images below show some of my work that is on display there.

I am also currently showing work at Queen Street Gallery in Neath as part of its first exhibition. It features work by new and established artists – there’s paintings, prints, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, jewellery and more. The exhibition runs until July 28th.

My work is also still available at The Craft Centre and Design Gallery in Leeds. It’s a wonderful gallery and they have an absolutely fantastic range of jewellery and ceramics!

‘Enamel Today’ Exhibition

Last Saturday the exhibition ‘Enamel Today’ opened at 78 Derngate: The Charles Rennie Mackintosh House, Northampton. It is an exhibition of Enamel work by the members of the British Society of Enamellers. As a member of BSOE I am exhibiting some of my ‘Sand and Stone‘ collection.

This fantastic exhibition runs until July 1st and includes the work of over 20 enamel artists. The work includes stunning jewellery and some brilliant wall art and art objects. The work is spread between three parts of the gallery so if you visit make sure you see it all.

See work by some of the other exhibitors below.

On another note, my work can now also be seen the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in Leeds.

Mission Gallery Showcase

Hannah Duncan Contemporary Jewellery can now be seen at Mission Gallery, Swansea.

The showcase is made up of most of my degree work plus a few new smaller necklaces and earrings. It is going to be on display for the duration of the current exhibition being held there – Situation/Material/Ocean. My work sits well next to this exhibition as it is based on coastal landscapes.

Having grown up in Swansea, as well as regularly visiting the south-west coast of Scotland, I have developed a love for the coast. This work combines enamelled silver and copper with fold-forming techniques and tangles of threads. The contrasting shapes and tactile surfaces are also used to embody the coastal landscape. My jewellery is an attempt to capture the beauty of this landscape and also immerse the wearer in the atmosphere of the shoreline.

So, if you’re in Swansea why not drop into Mission Gallery and check out the current exhibition and my work in the craft area. And while you’re at it why not treat yourself to a necklace or pair of earrings.

What a Year!

Hello and Happy New Year.

This is my first time writing a blog post in over a year and it is also my first time posting on my blog at it’s new location on my website.

(If you followed my blog as it was before – hduncancreations.wordpress.com – please note that whilst it is still currently active I will no longer be posting on it. Instead you can continue to follow me here. Please subscribe.
You can also follow me on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/HannahDuncanCreations)

A lot has happened since I wrote my last post – including me completing my degree. Therefore, today’s post will give you a brief overview of the highlights of my past year.

In March my classmates and I exhibited some of our work in De Koffie Pot, Hereford. Below is my display.

mar-17
If you followed my blog before you may have noticed a considerable change in my work since the 2^nd year of my degree. Over this past year I have developed a love for enameling – this photo shows the beginnings of my experiments with it as part of my work based on a coastal area of Scotland.

I developed my enameling skills and designs over the next few months to achieve my final outcomes for the degree show. The show was held at Hereford College of Arts in June.

june
After the stress of all my deadlines was over I was very excited to be able to take part in an enameling workshop run by Elizabeth Turrell.

Then at the end of June some of us packed up our degree work to take to London for New Designers. It was a bit manic but well worth it!

On July 22nd I finally graduated!

july-22
I had a less than perfect college experience, especially in this final year, but I am very proud to have completed my degree and particularly proud of the 1^st I received for my dissertation ‘Identity Crisis: What is Contemporary Jewellery and How Do We Define it?’.

At the degree show I was awarded the opportunity to exhibit with the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. The exhibition was held at the Town Hall in Chipping Campden in August. It was a great success and I received lovely feedback.

To top it all off, in October I found out I had been chosen as runner-up for the Guild of Enameller’s Bursary Award and because of this I now have an image of my work published in the current issue of Craft&Design magazine.

Stepwells Body Piece

This body piece was a pain to make! These photos are from before I oxidised the components, making them black, when I was working out how to wire the whole thing.The shapes I have used are based on the Stepwells of India.

There are no photos of the front of the body piece at this stage as it was actually taped on with masking tape!
What is sad is that to get the piece done in time for our exhibition I had to re-wire it directly onto my mannequin… meaning if I ever want to remove it or use the mannequin for something else I will have to cut the wires! I have plans to try to save it though.This piece was actually very interesting when left with its natural copper colour. It almost becomes part of the skin.

I wont be posting again in a while as I am away on holiday. However, when I am back I plan to post some more of the work leading up to this piece.

End of Year 2!

I have finally come to the end of my second year. You can probably tell it was incredibly busy and stressful by the slowness of my posts.

Since Christmas I have done work experience at 3 different placements, I have helped curate my class’s exhibition and I made a body jewellery piece, that went into that exhibition, which I am very pleased with. For that final project I received 68 – a strong 2:1.

Here is me with my work at our ‘MidPoint’ exhibition:

To see more from this exhibition go to my dad’s blog here:
https://stillwalks.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/degree-shows-a-week-of-art/

(You can also see some of the work from Hereford’s degree show on his blog here:
https://stillwalks.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/hereford-degree-shows/)

I do intend to post more myself but I am going away in 2 days and won’t be able to post in a while. I may try to schedule a couple of posts before then.

The photos in this post were taken by Claire Smout:
https://www.facebook.com/clairesmoutphotography?fref=photo

Midpoint – Exhibition Madness

I haven’t posted anything from my current project yet, things have just been too crazy! It’s been crazy partly because my class has been organizing an exhibition.

Next week our exhibition Midpoint opens. Come see the diverse work of 14 crafts students. There will be work in metal, ceramics, wood, resin. glass and textiles.
If you want to see a sneak peek then check us out here on Facebook.

Happy New Year

Well Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great night last night as well as a fantastic Christmas.These are pictures of another of my paper ‘corridors’. Again it is inspired by John Pym’s installation “Penumbra” but with this one I have also focused on the iconic windows of Mission Gallery. These ‘corridors’ are great for looking at from various angles, changing the perspective alters how they appear quite a lot. I particularly like this one, I’m not sure why, but at least a part of it is the use of black paper. Although it is all black the windows allowing light through still create different shades and depth.

Paper Corridors

Wow! So far second year has been unbelievably busy (part of the reason for the lack of posts). I have been working on 3 projects and an essay, all running at once! Luckily one project and the essay are over and done with now and I got 82 on my essay, a fantastic mark, giving me a first. Yay!

My main brief at the moment is to design and make a collection of work based on a specific museum or gallery of our choice. The idea is that the products we create would be sold in the shop of the museum or gallery.

I have chosen two galleries to base my work upon; Mission Gallery and MIMA.
I have been making lots of paper objects based on aspects of both galleries. These first ones were inspired by Mission Gallery’s building and the John Pym exhibition ‘Penumbra‘.

With these I was creating miniature corridors, joining curved and straight edges, and playing with ideas of perception of space, sense of depth and light and shadow.