Summary

Nellie Peoples is a designer-maker working in the field of jewellery and metalsmithing. With a history in design and architecture, she brings these two fields together in her metalsmithing practice through constant experimentation with line as a form and, with attention to detailed precision.

Line is constant throughout her practice. Adhering to this notion she pursues silver and goldsmithing to technical limits. There is an acceptance of the fine line between chance and disaster as she works towards those limits. However, precision is an overarching parameter and structure is a major component. All manipulations are still very controlled and are based on technical equations or rules.

In the body of a work, the line can be a layer, border, boundary, edge or a limit. To draw the attention back to the original line she uses different material finishes to draw attention to accentuate the treatment of the edge.

Through hand and bench skills as the basis for all of her designs, her mantra is that the machine adds to construction rather than machine drives construction.

Organisation

Inspiration/Method

A collection of wearable objects that investigate the value systems that are held for gemstones.

The systems examined include the hegemonic values of scale, carat, colour, and the clarity. However, the main focus was an exploration of the mineral makeup and the form of the stones.

The analysis of these values have been explored through the interchanging of natural and synthetic stones as well as the form of the gems from rough unfinished and cut, polished stones.

The setting design is a development from the Stacked Series and Sparkle Series. The gems were scaled down and nestled into the layers in the rings. The stones are integrated into the ring shank and within the band of the bangles. The gems force the line of the layer to detour, which results in all the layers to compensate and to readjust.

The setting style alludes to the origin of the stones themselves, as though being plucked from rock strata.

Design Challenge

The design challenges that arose were in the setting of the stones. The “rough” stone’s settings had to be cut, filed and worked to fit ever contour of the stone. No two of these settings were the same.

The stones were nestled into the cracks and crevasses that were created. There was a balancing act of surrounding structure of the piece. This took place on a vertical plane, whether it was rings for the finer or rings for the arm. The lines of the layers moved and flowed around the stone, which they encompassed. The stratum were transformed into bands, which began to undulate. The delicate balancing continued to the horizontal plane.

The full form had to continually be considered as each layer was added, with an emphasis on retaining the round motif. Was it well balance? How did the stone sit with in its setting? Could the sparkle of the stone still be seen?