By setting up this exhibition, Kolding School of Design wants to focus the spotlight on jewellery design by showing how, for the past 16 years, designers educated at the school have worked thematically with jewellery. The exhibition displays the works of 14 designers who have all been engaged in working with jewellery design although coming from very different fields: Fashion, Textile, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, and Ceramics. Naturally, the different design backgrounds bring entirely diverse expressions to the jewellery.
However, interestingly, their specific design background is not obvious.
The exhibition shows how different professional approaches can inspire the genre of jewellery. As genre, jewellery encompasses anything from sculptural miniature works to large body ornaments in the cross field between traditional jewellery, accessories, and clothing. The distinction between what is real and what is fake in terms of materials is not relevant and has not been for a long time; jewellery designers readily mix noble metals with rubber, ceramics, and textile. The goldsmiths’ traditional methods of processing have been positively challenged by traditional methods of related professions as well as modern technologies resulting in a diversity of jewellery made from ceramics, textiles, feathers, paper, and laser cut metals.