Everything I shouldn't like....

Reid Peppard is a designer that I was exposed to whilst writing a seminar on 'Gender and Jewellery' (sounds drab, I know, but with a tongue like mine you can make anything sound vaguely interesting...or at least try to). So, as I explained in an earlier post, I went down the route of androgynous jewellery, and Peppard was on of my pit stops along the way to discovering how jewellery can be wearable by both men and women.
So here's my chance to explain what it is that I admire about Peppard's work....
I'm a devout animal lover. I've spent my whole life surrounded by pets and even doing my bit to look after and conserve local wildlife. As you can expect, my initial reaction to Peppard's taxidermy work wasn't one of adoration. But I didn't detest it. There was something intriguing about the pieces. I'll admit, the pieces showing animals faces displaying horrific expressions were slightly...disturbing, but I found myself scrolling further and further down the article I was reading. A huge wave of relief flooded my body as I read that Peppard doesn't kill any of the animals that she uses. They're either found dead as road kill or are brought in by her pet cat. So my mind happily affixed a "no animals were harmed in the making of this collection" sign to Peppards work.
The conclusion to my seminar read "So, how does androgynous jewellery represent both genders? Well, in my view it represents neither, and this is key to representing both". I hope you understand that, because I'm not going to sit and type out the whole twenty minute seminar to explain it to you. Peppards work fits this conclusion perfectly. Yes she has made some pieces specifically with women in mind (handbags and purses for example), but the main body of her collection is suited for both men and women.
Anyway, check it out. I'm not going to post pictures on here because Peppard's blog comes with one of those "adult content" warnings, and I don't want to have to put one on my own. So I'll leave a link, and you can find your way from there.
http://reidpeppard.blogspot.com/

Bend me FLUX me anyway you want me

After our amazing feedback sessions, a course friend and I took ourselves off the the Mac to see the Flux exhibition. Flux, for those of you that don't know, is an exhibition of contemporary jewellery designers and is part of the annual Brilliantly Birmingham Exhibition.

I really enjoyed it. I went with my next project, 'Design For Production', in mind, so I was paying close attention to the methods the designers were using for their work.

A few collections really caught my eye. My favourite there was Gina Boldwin's, which is drawn from the anatomy of blackbirds. She then manipulates this form to produce dramatic pieces. Combining casting techniques and taxidermy Gina creates ornamental home wear and wearables. I think the main reason I was attracted to this work was because I'd recently presented a seminar on Gender and Jewellery, in which I looked into androgynous jewellery. One of the designers I looked into for this was Reid Peppard, who, like Gina Boldwin, uses the art of taxidermy. Being a vegetarian and animal lover, I expected to be horrified by this kind of work. But I wasn't at all. In fact, I was intrigued. I think a large part of why I didn't mind Peppard's work is because she never directly killed any of the animals she used, I can only hope that the same is true for Gina Boldwin.
Here are some pictures of Gina's work that I saw at flux (ignore the gabbering writing, I scanned in my journal entry):