The Beginning and the End

   I'm finally dusting off the cobwebs of my blog as I finish off my three years in Birmingham. So since I last wrote here I have been working on my final collection called 'Tell It In Colour' inspired by the stories from the group of the same name (see www.tellitincolour.com). So here's a little about my process if you would like to know...
   I began by taking some of my personal favourite TIIC stories and brainstorming and creating mood boards around the imagery contained in them. The three stories I chose to use were 'The Other Side' , 'When a Car Becomes Your Home', and 'The Shawstreet Redemption'.

'The Other Side' is a story about a young person called Andy who lives on the protestant/catholic interface in Belfast- the story tells of how he had never crossed to the other side of the street but when riots broke out he along with his youth group took gift bags over to the other community to show they didn't support the fighting.

I took the imagery of bridges for this story and went through the design process of a ring resulting in the designs below

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The second story 'When a Car becomes Your Home' is about an organisation called Christians Against Poverty who in an act of national solidarity took part in 'sleep outs' in their cars to show people in debt that there was hope and a charity to help them through their problems. My imagery for this was car wheels and so I designed the pendants shown below...

The last story I used was 'The Shawstreet Redemption' which is a story about a lady called Jeanette who wants to see her street transformed into a friendlier place so endeavours to get to know her neighbours and even throws a street party. Since Jeanette is bringing light and hope to her street I took inspiration from street lamps and created this brooch...  

The ethos of Tell It In Colour is to pick out the colour from the grey amongst our communities so therefore my pieces were oxidised which is a treatment that turns the silver a grey colour and I used mystic topaz stones to add symbolic colour. Hopefully they do the stories and the group justice! One part of the project I really enjoyed was the marketing and communication of the pieces and the whole concept of using the jewellery to promote Tell It In Colour. Here is an example of the one of the adverts I designed-hopefully you will get the concept I was going for :)

So this is the body of work that ends my time at the School of Jewellery its been an amazing experience and steep learning curve that I truly believe will set me up for an exciting future. I am currently on the job hunt with the rest of the world but in the mean time my work will be part of an exciting evening showcasing all sorts of local talent in the Black Box in Belfast on thursday 7th July- be sure to come along now! check out www.platformbelfast.co.uk and my new website www.susiealexander.co.uk

Tell It In Colour

   When I left Northern Ireland I discovered I was actually a home bird and every time I return whether for weeks or days it inspires me. Sometimes it's the buildings, the countryside, the music and a lot of the time its the people. Northern Ireland's story is inspiring too but can often lead to people having a negative overview of the country. So what if a group of people set up a chain reaction of positivity in 'our wee country'. Well they are and I feel extremely privileged to be part of this group. We are called Tell It In Colour.
   Our purpose is to creatively reveal hope filled stories to inspire people and create a positive reaction which will hopefully snowball throughout the country. This began as a vision from my friend who works as a national news reporter. She became fed up reading bad and depressing stories so decided to look for hopeful stories she could share instead. This became website based and was given its name. A few years on we are now a think tank group of seven people who are revealing these hope stories through different creative strands such as music, art photography and audio visual. last Thursday we had our launch night in the cathedral quarter in Belfast. It was truly a big success where singer/songwriter Stewart McIlwrath performed the songs he has written for his first album which have been inspired by Tell It In Colour stories. Along with these songs we had people telling the stories behind them from the vintage stage as well as interactive art and photography.
   To invest in this group is to invest in the future of Northern Ireland- I think its about time we became a generation of people who tell good news stories about our land instead of focusing on the past and prolonging the hate that is ever present. We are not denying or ignoring the terrible things that happen from day to day and they need to be told but people need hope amongst that and we are trying to spread that through real life inspirational beautiful stories. We are giving these stories a stage and a voice that they don't usually have. We also have a Tell It In Colour poem that begins, "If Belfast had a voice would it sooth or scare?" Being involved in this hope movement inspires me every day and so I think its only right to base my final project around TIIC. The challenge will be creating designs that are narrative to Tell It In Colour as well as using the technology I have come to learn about in my degree this year to an exceptional standard. This is my final collection and the last hurdle of my education so no pressure!wish me luck!
  Below is a clip of our 'Stories of Life' event last week to give you more of an insight! (I'm the one holding the book)

http://www.u.tv/Lifestyle/Belfast-has-hopeful-stories-to-tell/a428f4ab-6615-4b68-a915-5c181034651b

Charlotte.

What better way to grab your attention at a jewellery show stand than having women and men in outrageously bright and large dresses and suits....on stilts!This company definitely put on a show for Inhorgenta - a jewellery trade fair of world class I visited last February. The companies here did presentation like nothing ive ever seen before from the Pandora stand with a free bar and restaurant and a german folk band strolling around to the Crosslinks stand who hung their jewellery from branches within a glass box of lizards!

   However the Charlotte stand was one of the first I came across that really caught my eye. Each piece of Jewellery was sitting on an individual minature gold chair with blue velvet upholstry. Some of the designs weren't to my taste i'll admit but some definitely were! A lot of the companies, once they discovered you didnt have thousands of pounds to invest weren't interested in talking to you and infact some wouldn't even let you near the stand unless you showed them a business card. However  the people from this company were extremely friendly -they asked what I studied and even said they had heard of the School. They even gave me a beautiful book with pictures of a collection inside,

This book is filled with family pictures and patterns with their jewellery designs and drawings running throughout. This is what appeals to me most about this company. They are a german company which are ALL about family. Its a family run business that designs for families. Their concept is that their pieces can be collected and added to throughout generations and developed through generations as a forever changing airloom. A clever approach as they hope to get a customer for life not just one purchase.  

                            

I like the thought of taking on a piece like this then adding your own part to it and passing it down. I admire the ethos of designing and selling for pleasure and to create something for another family to enjoy as opposed to creating generic jewellery that is worn maybe for a few months until it is thrown in a box never to be seen again. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Charlotte will pull out of the bag this year when i return to Inhorgenta! In other news I went to an Intellectual Property Law lecture today....snorefest!!

                                       

Standing in Awe at the Salon Door...

The person who is inspiring me most right now is Jessica McCormack - originally from New Zealand she went from course to course undecided what she would do and finally making a decision to become an auctioneer for her fathers auction house. However while travelling she conveniently met the sister in law of the head of jewellery at Southeby's of London. Eventually this led to a 4 month internship where she learnt all she knows about jewellery and decided that is what she wanted to design. They offered her a job but she decided to start her own adventure. Two years later she's currently at the top of her game voted in the top 50 most influential people of the jewellery trade. Above is her 'Salon' housing her unreal collection of jewellery art. The Salon is by appointment only and I'm currently doing my best to be invited into this vintage magpie nest!

  Jessica is focused on re-eventing diamonds. Her diamonds are ethically sourced and sometimes hidden as she says she wants them to be for the wearer not the viewer inspired by Andy Warhol who used to wear jewels on the inside of his jacket fro only him to see. As seen above she likes to take beautiful aged pieces and create new pieces which she hopes will be heirlooms, she says “I really want them to be special; these pieces will be around hundreds of years after I’m gone, so I’ve got to make sure I get the story right before I die.”  She is completely engaged with her work from start to finish and I think her drawings are nearly as beautiful as the pieces. 


  

















    The 'Wing of Desire' above has been worn by Rhianna and many other stars. Her client list also include Madonna, Cheryl Cole and French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. Its clear this is not her aim in designing these sparkly pieces as apparently Madonna and Rhianna had a fight on their hands to prise the pieces off Jessica! Infact its her desires within jewellery that I admire most, "For me, making jewellery is about creating miniature sculptures. Each piece is the end result of my desire to turn what I perceive to be beautiful into a tiny piece of art. I would like people to re-evaluate their perception of fine jewellery and precious stones, breaking down barriers on how diamonds are considered, worn and used, with emphasis on luxury being about personal experience, appreciation and knowledge." and "to create incredible pieces of jewellery that will become future heirlooms for people and their families. Make some crown jewels; that’d be nice.”


   Jessica has big plans for the future as she has already created a targeted strategic plan to develop her name into a Cartier like brand. So watch this space!! I'll pop in a few more wee pics of the sheer beauty below :) 

(future husband whoever you are i would like this one please)

Living the Dream...

So I guess as my first blog I should really tell you who I am, what I'm doing and what the dream is...
 
   My name's Susie Alexander from Templepatrick in Northern Ireland and I'm currently studying Jewellery and Silversmithing at the Birmingham School of Jewellery. I've completed an HND here in Jewellery and Silversmithing and this year is a top up degree BA in a year (because everyone wishes they could cram 3yrs of work into one!) This course is focused on modern technology so using computers to design jewellery as well as laser technology and so on. The software can be difficult to use but its the future of the industry.
  As soon as I arrived in Brum I realised i was actually a homebird :-/ so I'm very much looking forward to finishing this June and returning to the motherland (and my mother!)
  So what's the dream? I would like to work within a contemporary jewellery business in Belfast helping them to expand their horizons, get on board with modern technology and hopefully in many ways change the shape of the jewellery industry in Northern Ireland. Further in the future I would like to work with other jewellery designers in the country creating projects and exhibitions. I want to contribute to the future of the Art scene in Northern Ireland and boost the reputation of our wee country......that's the dream :)