CEAD 2011 exposition in NCAD and I WON A PRIZE!!!

My broche "COSMOS" has been awarded with the Philip J. Dix Jewellery Prize in the CEAD EXHIBITION 2011, at NCAD. I am thrilled!

I submitted two pieces, a broche ("COSMOS") and a necklace ("BOTANICAL")

There was one more Jewellery price. It was for Laoise Craig and her Spiral Chain .

I was surprised and delighted to be awarded. There were beautiful jewellery, made with semiprecious stones, gold and silver. From a technical point of view they were much better than mine, but what appeal to the judges was the originality. My pieces really stand out from the rest thanks to the felting.

The annual CEAD Art Exhibition at NCAD features work by the College’s evening students is in the Design for Industry Building. Started on July 1st.

Opening hours are:
Friday 1 July/Saturday 2 July, 10am – 5pm;
Sunday 3 July, 2-4pm.

The exhibition includes Painting, Drawing, Print, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles, Stained Glass, Multimedia and much more.

 The Starting point for my broche and necklace were two copper pieces that I made this year in a Jewellery design course at National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Metals; Dublin, Ireland.

I need to confess that the firsts weeks I was quite lost between, pliers, files, saws, soldering, polishing, stone setting... I had not at all experience in metal work, I come from a 100% textile background and all that was new for me.

Due to the economical recession the gold and silver price went crazy, so I decided to do my trials in copper. Looking for an alternative to the pinkish colour of the copper I discover the patinas. What a fascinating world! As a feltmaker, colour and texture are a constant research and the patinas in metal are all about that. I did different tests, playing with different reagents and time of exposition. At the end of the course I was very happy with two of the copper pieces.

From the beginning my goal was to make mix media jewellery with metal and felt, but it was not easy to translate the traditional metal and stone techniques in felting. Two month later when preparing my submission for the CEAD 2011 exposition in NCDA, the inspiration came and for good.

Now I need to think how I'm going to spend my 100 EUR voucher for jewellery and keep working with new projects!!