Artist Portfolios

Chris Charteris

My relationship to using shell to make body adornment is deeply rooted in my cultural heritage. Being i-Kiribati /Fijian shell plays an important part of cultural life. Shells were also a material used for tool making, ritual gifting and currency.

image: Wedding Lei  ( NZ White Ostrich foot/Totorere shells) 750mm

image: Morning Star necklace( NZ Morning star/ Tāwera shells) 460mm

Caroline Thomas

These pieces are made from a saddle stamped with the date 1974, a year when, as a small girl, I was at the peak of my obsession with horses.
The two works represent the pony I could only dream about and never got to own.

Head Collar,  Neckpiece, 2024, Vintage Saddle leather, vintage nails, horseshoe, nails, cotton thread, 2024 40 x 30 x 7 cm

Lick, Brooch, 2018, Vintage saddle leather, vintage saddle stuffing, brass, Swarovski crystal beads, brass wire, 10 x 7 x 1.5 cm

Fran Allison

Your Basic Tee (2)

The interface between jewellery and clothing has always fascinated me and the recycled T-shirt carries with it its previous incarnations and meaning into this transformation into necklace.

The ubiquitous t-shirt is responsible for many areas of extensive pollution worldwide and for workers’ ill health and death. Links between fashion, greed, vanity and exploitation are now firmly established.

The first version of this work was made for the Intellectual Fashion Show in Oct 2016, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland –  and in response to June Black’s  ‘Costume to Breed Results on the Naked Body of Truth’. This the second, was completed in 2020.

A Bead Necklace (a recycling t-shirt service), Necklace, 2016 – 2025, recycled t-shirts. width 30mm length 290omm

Your Basic Tee (2), necklace, 2020, recycled t-shirts. width 15mm length 2900mm

Photographer: Allan McDonald

Becky Bliss

Anthropomorphising the building blocks for child development and play, which were formalised by the founder of the kindergarten system, Friedrick Froebel, in the early 1800s through a series of ‘gifts’, these works play with the shapes from gift#2 – circles, squares and triangles

Play Time. 2022. Pendant. Mild steel, silver, paint, cord. 155 x 95 x 2.5mm. Fabricated

Brendon Monson

Yank the Chain is my response to the tradition of folk craftwork that demonstrates one’s moral fortitude through epically laborious & skilfully demanding “functional” objects.

Rimu Links, wooden chain, 2024, Rimu, 100cm in length

Craig McIntosh

Tweeter, 2004, pendant, onyx

“Work supplied courtesy of The National”

Grace Yu-Piper

My work explores the relationship between fabric and stone, engaging in a conversation between these two materials with myself acting as an imperfect interpreter. While this work primarily focuses on material exploration, it’s also an ode to my love of rock hounding on the beaches and riverbeds of Aotearoa.

Stitch #3 and Stone #5, brooches, 2024, fabric, cotton thread, sterling silver, stainless steel and stone (NZ), paint, sterling silver, stainless steel, 95 x 85 x 14mm and 88 x 60 x 16mm

Jack Hadley

The works for GOODNESS are a series of custom circuit boards mounted onto brooch backings. The circuits are very basic, controlling a sequence of flashing coloured LEDs. Like the lights on top of police cars, these flashing LEDs draw your attention and convey a sense of urgency or warning. Within the context of this busy group show, I wanted to make work that was playfully distracting and slightly annoying.

P555F_v3 (O-Y-P), brooch, 2024, custom printed circuit board, electronic components, thermoplastic polyester, brass, stainless steel pin. 46 x 46 x 16 mm

The Unbelievables are an ever-growing population of characters, in the form of brooches. They have been carved from any suitable material that came to hand – many different woods, often prepared bovine bone.

They emerge from the material with a little coaxing from me, seemingly choosing their own expression and attitude. I may decide what they are holding, wearing, doing, but not much else. It’s a charming way to work. A collaboration between the maker, the material and mysterious forces.

Hominid in nature, mythical, ancestral, these enigmatic beings question our origins, our evolution, and our relationships.

Unbel.  Brooch.  Bone, sterling silver, marcasite, stainless steel wire. 100x27x13mm 2024.

Cracking up.  Brooch.  Ebony, sterling silver, marcasite, stainless steel wire. 95x22x14mm  2024.

Joe Sheehan

“When I work with Jade or Nephrite, I always consider its relationship to light.
Sometimes, I push the stone to its limits, cutting it very finely. With these recent pieces, I use this approach to create an illusion of space and dimension that transcends the physical reality of the object. These ‘Cylinder’ necklaces are flat and lightweight, a kind of ‘shapeshifter’ necklace.”

‘Cylinder’ Necklace, 2024, Pounamu (Nephrite Jade), Stg Silver

Mia Straka

An Idyllic Summer’s Day – MF documents an ideal day in the life of a colleague. The colours represent various activities, shaped in the form of a digitally rendered radar chart based on their imagined ideal day.

This extended into the interpersonal realm, a project documenting 17 months of the artist’s life which took the form of daily hand drawn pictographs.

Transforming this data into experimental adornment questions how we value our time and the accumulative effect of everyday actions over a life. Wearing this work can be a physical reminder to choose wisely.

An Idyllic Summer Day – MF, Neckware, 2023, Bamboo, natural pigments, silk, wax, 510 x 90 x 10mm

My work is a playful investigation of materials and their previous lives. I examine how these materials interact with humans, both in loving and scratchy ways. Through my art, I explore the stories embedded within these materials and the dynamic relationships they form with us. It’s an ongoing dialogue between the past and present, full of unexpected connections and tactile experiences.

The Protector, 2024, neckpiece, steel shoe heel protectors and steel wire

courtesy Caroline Billing at The National

Image Credit: Juliet Black

I make pieces for the future.

I don’t always know what I’m doing, I hope it stays like that.

Everything is food for art.

VARIOUS STUFFED ANIMALS SEPARATED AND JOINED AGAIN, 2017, Textile, thread, stuffing

BAGS MAKE GOOD JEWELLERY AND THIS ONE IS PARTICULARLY ATTRACTIVE WITH SMALL STUFFED SQUARES ATTACHED TOO, 2017, Fabric, stuffing, textile, bamboo, thread

Moniek Schrijer

DEBUTANTE – Pendant, 2023 Cast glass chandelier crystals, copper, silver, paint.

Nadene Carr

Beauty and ugly are not opposed but related, co-dependent aspects.
However, defined, beauty is not necessarily attractive and ugliness is not always repulsive. Taste changes and morphs, erasing aesthetic certainties.

Enamelled Whiteware, 2017, Necklace

Found object (copper), enamel, glass jewels, fabric

L12cm, W7cm, D1.5cm

Neke Moa

Neke Moa is tākata whenua (indigenous māori) from Aotearoa/NZ

Neke Moa’s practice seeks to promote Hauora (health and sustainability) by deepening connections between people, tōhunga (knowledge holders), and atua (deities). Using materials from the environment, and drawing on customary and contemporary processes, she works to make mātauranga (knowledge) and pūrākau (stories) newly accessible.  Her work explores our connections within the spaces of the seen and unseen, the place where wairua (spirituality) resides and creativity is sourced.

“Through collaboration, building and maintaining relationships and a constant curiosity I am able to sustain an art practice that continues to evolve.”

He Tāoka, He Tāonga, necklace, lamb skin, pearl shell, coins, sterling, paint, 70 x 10 cm

Nina van Duijnhoven

Pink chain:
A Conversation (2021)

Chain: I am glad you made me.
Nina: Really? Why?
Chain: I am a happy chain.
Nina: You are not supposed to be a happy chain!
Chain: Haha… did I fool you!
Nina: You are supposed to be about constriction and restriction.
Chain: Restriction is not always a negative, it forces you to go deeper, to look for other possibilities

Nina’s work explores environmental issues and spiritual beliefs such as impermanence and non-attachment. She examines the human connection to material possessions, emotions, ideas and beliefs. Paper is her current material of choice to express ideas around ephemerality.

Pink chain:
A Conversation (2021), Archival paper, pastels

Black/white pendant

To Cut (2022), Archival paper, pastels

Black/white brooch

To Cut (2022), Archival paper, pastels

4 Corners, ONE ODD ONE OUT

During my teenage years, an LSD experience convincingly revealed that all people are interconnected, whether they realise it or not. These rare moments have provided me with valuable insights into coping with my existence and embracing spiritual connections.

Some individuals don’t quite fit into the societal mould, shaped by their intellectual, psychological, emotional, and/or cultural backgrounds, as well as political systems and unjust circumstances. Their souls yearn for simple connection, acceptance, like-minded contact, or for deeper and more spiritual experiences. Artists, in particular, often resonate with the complexity of these feelings.

​

4 Corners, ONE ODD ONE OUT, 4 necklaces, recycled MDF, wooden beads, cotton yarn

Sarah Walker-Holt

Untitled Yellow, Neck-piece, 2011, Manuka, domestic implements, golf tee, copper, vintage thread, nuts & bolts

Raewyn Walsh

My work celebrates those moments where nature and culture collide, and I lean into the elemental urge to make things and adorn oneself.

Raewyn Walsh studied at Unitec, under the tutelage of Pauline Bern, Areta Wilkinson, and Ilse-Marie Erl.  She lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

www.raewynwalsh.co.nz

Rhinerock, 2024, Brooches, Found pumice, preciosa crystal, stg silver

Rohan Wealleans

My artwork explores the transformative process of creating a material from paint and using it as both medium and inspiration. This process reflects how the natural materials of a land inherently shape the cultural objects and traditions of its people.

“ Specific Necklace” 1 and 2, 2024, Paint string and  polystyrene

Alan Preston

My work is about Contemporary Pacific Adornment.

Necklace, Muka, Kōwhai seeds, Painted Nikau seeds and gold

Rowan Panther

Panther is responding to the complexities of colonisation and to her mixed Irish, English, German and Samoan ancestry. She is part of the cultural recovery of a European handmade lacemaking tradition that was nearly destroyed by industrialisation. At the same time she is a participant in the cultural celebration of Pacific craft practices that were irreparably altered by the processes of diaspora.

Placeholder #2,  2016, Chestplate, muka, parau shell, stg silver

For many people, the word jewellery conjures up images of gold, diamonds and mass produced bling. This adorned baggage has led me to explore alternative visual and contextual communication surrounding wearable objects that do not fit the traditional jewellery mold. I create silicone jewels that encourage play and interaction between the wearer and the observer. 

 Blue Eggs Green Ham blob necklace, c2008, silicone, pigments

These pieces refer to Otto Kunzli’s wallpaper brooches and the later boxed series. They also pay homage to Édouard Manet’s small paintings of floral bouquets.

brick, 2009, brooch, reconstituted plastic shopping bags, foam, sterling silver, image Allan McDonald

boxed 2, 2018, brooch, reconstituted plastic shopping bags, oxidised sterling silver, steel, image Caryline Boreham

Vanessa Arthur

At first glance an ‘empty’ urban space may seem stuck in a kind of limbo, melancholic and lifeless – to me, they epitomise a space between just before and a moment after. A Waymark. Spaces where the past, present and future merge, something ineffable…a site of subtle awe.

Waymark, 2024, Brooch, Brass, silver, heat set & enamel paint, oil pastel, steel pin, 98 x 75 x 7mm

Waymark, 2024, Brooch, Brass, silver, heat set & enamel paint, oil pastel, steel pin, 90 x 120 x 7mm

Effervescence, 2024, Brooch, Pāua shell, brass, silver, heat set & enamel paint, oil pastel, steel pin, 52 x 115 x 7mm

Waymark , 2024, Brooch,, Brass, silver, heat set & enamel paint, oil pastel, steel pin, 97 x 65 x 10mm

In my work I have long used Barbie as a cypher of my culture; stratified consumer culture.
Growing up an outsider/insider in suburban small-town Aotearoa, distancing ourselves from the stultifying conformity of our environs. Funny hair and weird clothes, hassled by the cops, ignored in the shops. Window blinds twitching in the cul-de-sacs we listlessly roamed, until we packed up and left.

Twitch is a neckpiece consisting of articulated arms sandcast from Barbie doll arms. The casting material is melted-down Venetian blinds (a lovely teal colour).

Twitch, Neckpiece, 2022, Sandcast, Barbie, Venetian blind and stainless steel

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