Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Birmingham City University
Flock on Queenie
The Association of Contemporary Jewellery invited the researcher to submit a design proposal for the selected national touring exhibition and publication to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year of 2012. The touring exhibition showcased the work of 32 designer/artists and offered an overview of contemporary jewellery practice in the UK. The exhibitors were chosen by a distinguished judging panel that included Karen Dell'Armi, Jacqueline Gestetner, Joanna Hardy, Corinne Julius and Kath Libbert.
The aim of Robertson’s work was to design and create a show stopping wearable celebratory ‘crown’. The outcome, the jubilee crown titled ‘Flock on Queenie’, comprises ten elements each made up of six units (10 x 6 = 60) representing the monarch’s sixty year reign. It was designed to question and challenge traditional conventions by creating a piece in non-precious materials that utilized the researcher’s unique technical processes and visual language and was far removed from the jewel encrusted traditional crowns historically worn by kings and queens. Furthermore was created to be celebratory and evoke images of jubilee street parties symbolized through associated motifs of diamond patterns and jelly moulds.
The significant aspect of this piece was the further development of the researcher’s technique of using dye sublimation. Two dimensional images (e.g. Union Jacks) were manipulated in Photoshop and printed onto clear plastic transfer for heat pressing onto white high impact polystyrene sheets which were then vacuum formed to create some of the three-dimensional components of the crown. The crown also extended the researcher’s investigations into flocking onto hand-fabricated and found components, which were then assembled with cold connections to create the piece.
The tri-nation exhibition toured 5 venues:
Birmingham School of Jewellery; Llantrisant Gallery, Wales; Goldsmiths' Centre, Clerkenwell, London; SH Gallery, Edinburgh; North Glasgow College.
