2009 Armstrong Prestige "Ornate"
Dunedin Contemporary Jewellery Celebration

Tony Williams

Tony Williams has been designing and making jewellery for nearly 40 years.

He starts from a love of the traditional materials of jewellery - their richness, mystery and history, and he has a deep knowledge and mastery of the techniques of jewellery making. He is fascinated with the styles of the Renaissance and Art Nouveau, and, having trained in Birmingham, is particularly inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement.

He draws on all of this to create jewellery which ranges from outrageous costume to works of classical elegance.

Chris Idour

Starting a four year apprenticeship at a well established firm in Dunedin, Chris has had nine years experience in the trades and fine jewellery and a further ten years working on designs for a world acclaimed goldsmith working within the arts.

Chris has combined both his experience in fine jewellery and goldsmith designs and has set up a gallery and workshop at his home in St Clair. With the ever changing views over looking the ocean, he whiles away the hours working on unique, modern and contemporary pieces for local, national and international clients.

Anne-Mieke Ytsma

Anne-Mieke’s work is playful. It is a mix of precious and non-precious materials. Anne-Mieke uses paint and silver as well as found objects to create her jewels. She uses bricolage as a way to construct her jewellery. At the moment Anne-Mieke is working with old, discarded jewellery, particularly rings from op-shops, playing around with them, deconstructing them to create new jewellery pieces.

What I love about jewellery is seeing it being worn and loved by people. I think that the object doesn’t really become something until it is owned and worn by someone.

Chaim Cleavin

Working from 'The Aviary'; a quirky studio adjoining his home in the coastal suburbs of Dunedin, Chaim is now preparing and beginning to produce an exciting new body of work in brooch and ring forms for the 2008 event. This collection of work is entitled “5 Masters” and aspires to interpret and present the life and works of significant artists Albrecht Durer, Francisco Goya, Paul Klee, Egon Schiele and Max Ernst.

Chaim is represented by several dealers throughout New Zealand. You can learn more about his work at http://www.findedges.co.nz

Victoria McIntosh

A collector and hoarder by nature, Victoria has always been drawn to objects that carry a sense of history. Dunedin’s second-hand shops provide rich hunting grounds for overlooked treasure and these finds form the basis for much of her work.

The patty tin brooches Victoria has been working on combine her love of the found, fabric and pearls. Using solder as well as stitch, they allow Victoria to bring together the skills she was taught as a child around the kitchen table with those later learnt at the jeweller’s bench.

David Mcleod

David McLeod is a Dunedin based jewellery maker and sculptor. His 2008 collection is based on experiences and information gathered on a trip to New Zealand's Sub Antarctic Islands in 1995. Of particular interest is the different experiences of people who have spent time on these Islands and changing perceptions we have of the islands history and future, as our social views and resource needs change.

He works out of SHED workspace in the Queens building on Princes St, and his work is available from, Master Works in Auckland, Statements Gallery Napier, Quoil Wellington, Form Gallery Christchurch, and Quadrant Gallery in Dunedin.

Iain Henderson

Part section of necklace 'Leave those kids alone' aka 'Romie's Revenge'. Even in the darkest spaces there's light and beauty.

John Z Robinson

The old mantras of "form and function" and "truth to materials" still reverberate with me. Old fashioned yes, but so is the metal working craft. I like handmade jewellery that can be worn comfortably and confidently. Something wearable and durable. Something that looks good and feels good, on or off the body.

Henry Devereux

Devereux Jewellery has put the charms back in your court this season. The integration of different chains welded together, unusual links, odd shaped hearts and picture frames as charms all give the wearer a chance to attach their own meaning to the pieces. Also this season, the classic bead necklaces, with an egyption\pharoah influence, generous in material but ever so elegant. A small glimpse at the work Devereux Jewellery has to offer, this years inspiration and theme is based on "chance", 'the chance to recognize this jewellery is for you!'

Natasha Nicolson

Natasha was introduced to the studio practice in her first week at art school and has yet to look back as “I never felt a connection with any other mediums in the same way that I have with jewellery”.

Inspirations for many of my works are drawn from experiences in my everyday life. What better to create work from than life itself? Literature and the scrawling handwritten entries of my journals have been the starting point for these pieces as I have always been very fond of the idea of memories.

Jingjing Wu

Jingjing’s work explores the relationships between Chinese and Kiwi culture, using traditional Chinese cultural ideas in a contemporary context.

Her jewellery "represents the idea that no matter what the adversity, a higher form can manifest". Jingjing uses white polymer clay to recreate the feeling of white jade, which as Jingjing explains in Chinese, "represents probity and high moral standing".

Tony Williams

Tony Williams was born in England, brought up in Wellington, New Zealand, and trained at the Birmingham School of Jewellery where he was awarded an Honours Diploma in Jewellery, F.G.A. and a Diploma in Gem Diamonds.

Tony's work combines a European tradition of design and meticulous craftsman-ship with an Antipodean freshness and originality to create unique pieces of fine jewellery and objets d'art in precious metals, stones, and enamels, which are admired by collectors throughout the world.

Fine design, fine materials, fine craftsmanship - I try to incorporate all of these in my work. There is no substitute for quality of materials and technique. I feel that jewellery must be beautiful in its own right, but that it should also compliment the wearer. It must be personal. It should be unique.

Iain Henderson

I have worked as a self-employed goldsmith for 23 years. My clients are both local and international. I blend my love of music with things that effect me personally, good and bad. I design the jewellery for my own pleasure, selling it is an added bonus.

Henderson Jewellery, 326 George Street, Dunedin. Phone 03 477 7281.

David Mcleod

David's initial arts career was in sculpture, including several architectural scale commissions though now works principally in a jewellery context. Most of his work has a social or political narrative, though in saying this, sometimes a process, technique, or manner of attaching or combining materials may be the primary motivation for the work.

David works at SHED Workspace in the Queens Building, 109 Princes St, Dunedin. Ph 03 474 9939. Visitors welcome, please phone first.

John Z Robinson

The collection of recent silverware by John Z Robinson consists mainly of the 'Boo to a Tui' series, featuring tui and locally themed jewellery - words, birds and simple design. JZR jewellery is available from Lure in Dunedin and Gallery 33 in Wanaka and Quoil in Wellington.

John works on the top floor, 130 Stuart Street, visitors welcome. Phone 027 213 5077.

Chris Idour

Chris has been in the jewellery industry since 1987 and has set up a studio at his home in St Clair.

With magnificent views overlooking the St Clair Esplanade and the ever-changing Pacific ocean. Chris whiles away the hours creating unique pieces, often using these views as his inspiration.

Look for the sand swept textures and colours of the night in a lot of his work.

Chaim Cleavin

These brooches are made with the feel of an approaching autumn and with reflection upon the passing of a close friend and mentor.
The collection is presented as the autumn season release from my label Square 1.
A myriad of forms and colours in sterling silver, gold and enamel paint.
A last twirl together this morning and then swept to assorted chests and corners of the world...

Square 1 is represented in Dunedin by The Otago Museum Store.

Ingrid Kaddatz

A blend of traditional techniques and playful storytelling are the foundations from which Ingrid Kaddatz develops her jewellery. Her unique style of drawing and painting are the tools she relys on to bring here ideas to three dimensional form. After obtaining a degree in Fine Arts ( Vancouver, Canada), she persued an interest in jewellery and completed a 4 year apprenticeship under Tony Williams. In an ever increasing world of mass production her passion for all things handmade continues to drive her and her desire to create.

Jenny Kemp

Jenny has been overseas as an Exchange student in both America and Japan. She has completed a course in Visual Arts at the Southern Institute of Technology in Invercargill, and is now in her 4th year at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art, majoring in Jewellery and Metalsmithing. Through all of this, she has learned to explore and try different things and to explore different materials.

For me it's about reinventing a style that reflects a stage of excitement, something fun and changing its identity from a plain piece of material and learning from it.

Chris Idour

Chris, who has been in the jewellery industry since 1987, has established himself as a well-known Dunedin jeweller. Having a love for precious and semi-precious stones, Chris has built up quite a collection, and is always searching for new ideas to bring these stones to life. Having a studio at his home looking over St Clair Esplanade, he draws a lot of his inspiration from the ocean's moods and inconsistencies.

Della Slattery

Della's work is inspired by body and image, nature and fantasy, believing we can create who we are. This is a change from her past as a potter which 'all seemed to become very domesticated!' Working from a home studio at Port Chalmers she transforms laser printed acrylic glass, aluminium drink cans, and sterling silver into jewellery with a mysterious and quirky edge.

John Z Robinson

A jeweller and painter, John's work reflects a crossover of the two mediums. Born in Foxton he served a four and-a-half year apprenticeship with a main-street jeweller in Palmerson North.

Some time later he spent four years at the Dunedin School of Art and in the mid-'90s started to find a way to bring together the strands of the two disciplines.

Ang Lewis

At the heart of Ang's jewellery is a sense of playfulness inspired by 1950's design, collected quirky objects, resin and silver. Her work is bold and elegant and a pleasure to wear. Ang studied jewellery at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art, graduating with a diploma of craft design. She works from SHED workspace with three other jewellers.

Chaim Cleavin

Chaim was born in 1974, grew up in Dunedin and eventually arrived at the jewellery bench in 1996. He has worked under Peter McKay, Kobi Bosshard and Georg Beer. Naming his business "find edges", his current preoccupation is the careful composition of simple patterned and shaped tile elements to create pleasing form and evoke thought - attractive objects that might invite further application of meaning and investment from other people.

Andrew Last

Andrew has lived in Dunedin and taught jewellery at the Otago Polytechnic for five years. He has exhibited his jewellery, silversmithing, sculpture and design all around the globe over the past 20 years. His work has a techno edge and is mostly made from aluminium. Andrew likes to use titles with an "X" or a "Z" in them somewhere.

Tony Williams

Tony Williams has been designing and making jewellery for more than 30 years.

He starts from a love of the traditional materials of jewellery - their richness, mystery and history. He has a deep knowledge and mastery of the techniques of jewellery making and a particular fascination with the styles of the Renaissance and Art Nouveau. He draws on all of this to create jewellery which ranges from outrageous costume to works of classical elegance.

David Mcleod

David Mcleod is a contemporary jewellery designer and maker. David's initial arts career was in sculpture, including several architectural-scale commissions, although he now works principally in a jewellery context. Most of his work has a social or political narrative, though in saying this sometimes a process, technique or manner of attaching or combining materials may be the primary motivation for the work. David works with Blair Smith and Ang Jewiss at SHED Workspace, which is open to the public by prior arrangement.

Anne-Mieke Ytsma

Anne-Mieke is currently in her last year of jewellery at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art. Her jewellery objects play with the idea of preciousness, painting paper, thin silver or using other materials such as textiles to make fragile or semi-permanent jewellery. Her inspirations often come from finds at second-hand shops. April 2006 will find Anne-Mieke foraging around the Netherlands for a month, researching family, visiting galleries and gathering materials as a foundation for her final-year work.