Rising Stars

Alexandra passed the time with a multitude of creative hobbies that gave her the foundation to her jewellery style. Her paintings and writing paved the way for her craft and instilled a whimsical flair into the ‘Infest’ collection. Looking for the beauty in all things that scuttle and soar, Alexandra’s fascination was captured by the insects she saw in Edinburgh and Glasgow’s museums. This then materialised through her practice of embroidery and beadwork. Alexandra opts for more traditional methods of making with a contemporary uniqueness to delight varying generations of customers and clients.

Slug mucus represents the journey each slug has been on. Leaving behind a trail of slimy mucus across any surface and telling a story of their intentions. My collection focuses on the disgust of slugs and translating this into fine jewellery, enrapturing the viewer to look closer and create a bond with the unlikely creatures. A fun and playful series of characters are included in the collection. This story is told through the colour, shape and size of stones used. Patination is added to the slugs, giving them a realistic appearance. Each slug can be worn as a brooch, trailing over your garments, or as a wall decoration. Hand carving each slug and casting them into bronze and silver. I also set a variety of stones into the body to translate the slimy nature and turn them into fine jewellery.

Ismail Ahmad Kamran is a contemporary jeweller residing in the UK. His Pakistani roots and interest in modern art reflect in his designs, expressing his religious and cultural identity in a modern context. Ismail gets his inspiration from Islamic arts, (modern) architecture and optical art. His work, immersed in both eastern and western cultures, spark the interest of a diverse audience, from the villages of Punjab to the cities of Europe. He uses a combination of modern and traditional jewellery-making techniques to create architectural and visually complex pieces of jewellery. Ismail’s current work explores the use of titanium. The unique features and the limited flexibility of the metal allow him to use innovative techniques to create contemporary art.

Coming from a small town north of the arctic circle in Norway, Heidi Korkala grew up surrounded by mountains and nature, the fore she has always had a strong connection to nature. While studying in London she intensely felt the lack of natural landscapes. On moving to Scotland a few years later she instantly fell in love with the rugged Scottish landscape. Heidi particularly connected to the remote areas of Scotland such as the north coast and the islands.

Being a keen enameller, Heidi aims to capture the beauty of the wild Scottish landscape in her pieces. She uses colours to evoke emotion and memory of a place, focusing on colours in the landscape and on the changing colours throughout the day such as morning or evening. Through exploring the forms and shapes of the landscape, she aims to establish a connection to the place. This results in wearable landscapes that becomes little worlds of memory and reminiscence.

I believe every piece of handmade jewellery is just like a thumbprint, it is special and unique.
Material is the body of the jewellery, and jewellery making is not limited to specific materials. Working on a variety of materials has allowed me to have more flexibility when I am designing pieces. Different materials can be used to create works by using various techniques which affect the visual expression of the work, as well as the contextual background of the work.
My inspiration comes from the objects around me, and fun or troubling things that happen in life. Each of my pieces is carefully thought out and created, and there are always stories behind them. I also realized jewellery can be more than just a decorative piece, it can be more interactive, playful as well as genderless and would like the wearer to feel the joy of the jewellery.

The name of the collection is 'The 25th Hour'. A day has 24 hours, and 'The 25th hour' is a representation of the imaginary world outside of the actual hours in a day. As I'm imagining what would happen if I escaped the Earth and Covid and went to live on another planet.
This project was inspired by bike, moon, and my experience during the pandemic lockdown which delved into the imagination. Back to the lockdown time in the summer of 2020. Restrictions, rules of travel, and visiting friends triggered my fantasy of going out, it made me create a utopia in my imagination.

From the first time I made a basket I was hooked! The smell, the feel of the willow and the pattern and repetitive strokes just came naturally to me. It can become mesmerizing, and addictive and the possibilities are endless. I love the sustainability of the craft and grow a lot of my own willow, feeling grateful each winter when I come to harvest the rods how circular the process is, the baskets and artworks I create can go back to the earth at the end of their long lives and nourish the ground once again.

My recent collection focuses on a set of decorative boxes that have delicate silver elements of plant life on top with small scale embroidered details. The floral forms, taken from my own observational drawings, have been hand pierced and hammered to give texture and to manipulate the metal into shape.

These are complimented with bud-like features which have been hand embroidered with cotton threads in a muted colour pallet. With the stitch, it brings pops of colour and a slight illusion, from a distance it appears to be enamel but as you get closer you begin to see the threads and textures of the embroidery. For me, the boxes are like small scale gardens, bringing the beauty of the natural world into a precious object, allowing us to appreciate nature from inside our homes too.