Lauren Bell-Brown

Building upon her understanding of traditional fairytale aesthetics Lauren Bell-Brown's graduate jewellery collection, ‘Unravelling the Fairytale’, portrays the beauty in the classic Snow White tale whilst incorporating the Grimm Brothers’ more sinister narrative.

Their story differs from that recognised by many as the ‘original’, providing an unromanticised version of the tale. Lauren conceals unexpected dark details within her jewellery, finding the Grimm Brothers re telling so much more fascinating and intriguing. Intricate, ornate detail and texture combined with needlepoint embellishment adds drama to the fantasy of the jewellery offering a subversive twist to the concept of the familiar ‘happily ever after’. Meticulously hand crafted, electroformed and plated cuttlefish castings and wax petal carvings fused with delicate sublimated shibori create enchanting wearable sculptures reflecting contrasting elements from a childhood fairytale. Laurens fascination with juxtaposing states of perfection and flawed, of beauty and demise, are embodied in her work evoking a semblance of an ideal tale, tenuously exposing its darker side.