University News Last updated 18 June 2013
A jewellery graduate from Birmingham City University is creating a stir with her controversial jewellery designs made to look like skin.
26-year-old designer I-Ting Ho’s ‘Skin Secret’ collection questions the idea whether beauty is only skin deep and depicts how accessories are worn like a second skin - used to improve and identify ourselves.
Aiming to challenge the public’s perception of beauty; the necklaces, earrings and other jewellery are made to look like blemished and scarred skin and as I-Ting fully admits may be seen as gruesome by some people.
She said: “At the beginning of the research into my project, I was looking at medical articles and I did think that maybe some people would think the project was a bit gruesome. But after I went further into my project, it became clear that I’m trying to tell a story and offer questions to audiences. Some people will be scared by my work, but some of them understand the messages behind the collection – and they have told me they love it!”
I-Ting took her inspiration from the Buddhist philosophy that the human body is just a ‘skin shell’. The smallest brooch in the collection took 17 hours to make while some of the larger pieces took almost two days.
“In order to reach as close as possible to the real feeling of skin, I did a lot experimenting, from using plaster to kinds of silicone, to types of rubber,” I-Ting explains, “but the most difficult part was getting the colour right.”
‘Skin Secret’ is part of I-Ting’s final project for her postgraduate degree in jewellery, silversmithing and related products at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) part of Birmingham City University. She now works as a designer for a company that designs artwork and sculptures for hotels, luxury houses and restaurants and she is currently exhibiting her designs as part of the University’s School of Jewellery MA graduate exhibition in San Francisco at the prestigious Velvet da Vinci gallery.