University News Last updated 07 February 2019
During your time on our courses you’ll have the opportunity to showcase your work through live projects, exhibitions and collaborations with industry. A selection of work from our BA (Hons) Jewellery and Objects students is currently on tour across Birmingham.
The work includes highlights from across all years, from a selection of pieces from a live project with RHS Chatsworth to graduate pieces. The exhibition started at Birmingham Conservatoire, situated outside the main concert hall where visitors could enjoy the work before, during and after performances.
We spoke to some of the students involved in the exhibition to find out more about their work and the benefits of exhibiting to an external audience:
“My piece in this exhibition is from my piece for the RHS Chatsworth competition, where we had to mix classic British design with horticulture”, current final year student Emily Dougherty explained.
“For this I chose the Meccano toy set; this is because I believe it would have inspired many creatives, giving them the ability to build. The piece required me to use CAD design in order to create my pieces. I created a file and then had them engraved onto 1.2mm gilding metal and laser cut onto wood and finally silver plated. This finished piece really showed my concept because I believe the wood tapped inside the metal pieces show how horticulture often tries to control nature. For this piece I won best in show.”
“It is very important to showcase my work externally. I feel more opportunities are available to me once my work gets out there more, also it allows people to see more work from the School of Jewellery, especially in a city centre building. My work aims to send a message rather than to be sold as a piece of fine jewellery, because of this it is great for it to be shown in exhibitions as it then allows more people to view it and get the message across.”
First-year student Angelie Sta Ana added: “It made me feel I have accomplished something big in my life. Out of all other students in my course, I will be one of the people that gets to showcase what I have learnt during my first year.”
Currently the exhibition is on display in the Hive on Vittoria Street which is part of the Ruskin Mill organisation. The building includes a craft education centre, a historical jewellery industry education centre and a vegetarian café open to the general public.