Piece made for Emma 5

Traces

Figs. 117 - 119

Figs. 120 - 123

Figs. 124 – 126

Jayne Wallace Traces Porcelain and velvet Figs. 117 – 126 Still images from accompanying film

Figs. 117 – 119 Show a piece of velvet cut and etched in the shape of an open jewellery case, one of a group of porcelain clasps and a porcelain pearl

Figs. 120 & 121 show the pearl and a clasp being placed on the velvet. This act enables a sound recording to be made; placing the pearl on the velvet turns the piece on and placing a clasp down activates a

recording

Figs. 122 & 123 show speech being recorded

Figs. 124 show the clasp being lifted off the velvet. This act ends a recording

Figs. 125 & 126 show the same clasp being placed back down on the velvet. This action causes the recorded sounds or voices associated with that particular clasp to be played

Each clasp can only be used in a recording once and not re-recorded or amended

(See accompanying DVD for full version of film and Appendix B section 2 for further detail of the

5 Appendix B section 2 accompanies the development of this piece

development of this piece and the film that accompanies it)

A key influence on my design of Traces was the fact that although Emma is a jeweller she stated that she does not wear jewellery. I did not want to force the piece to be wearable or for the study to be a challenge for me to make something that she would wear, these issues were not my interest. I did put small holes into the porcelain objects that could easily be used to adapt the objects into wearable forms, but then left this kind of appropriation open for Emma’s interpretation. I felt it was more sensitive to make something that she would feel comfortable with and as I have discussed in chapter 2 (Contextual review section 2.1.2.5) wearability is a flexible issue in contemporary jewellery. My work has never been constrained by conventional notions of jewellery as a mundanely worn object. Instead the piece became about jewellery and how it operates as heirlooms, something to pass on from generation to generation. These perspectives of jewellery stemmed from Emma’s conversations with me about what she values in her own perspective of jewellery.

The piece was made to describe components of a jewellery case in the form of a porcelain pearl, a series of porcelain clasps and a piece of velvet fabric. Each object was a physical description of the objects they represented. The velvet for example was laser cut and scorched to describe the inside of a traditional necklace case, showing the contours, folds and hinges as etched lines in the velvet.

The materials I used were of key importance. From Emma’s comments about her daughter in the fairytale stimulus the touch of skin was something I wanted to respond to. Polished porcelain and velvet seemed to echo the tactility of flesh in different ways; velvet is soft and warms and the porcelain is firm, smooth and cool to the touch. There were also many references to fabric objects in Emma’s responses and the use of fabric in the piece seemed to reflect the home-centred, comfort context of many of the stimuli responses.

Emma seemed to be someone who was keen to impart her knowledge, she was very vocal;

the significance of words and voices were mentioned in her responses several times and as such I made the piece to reflect these aspects. I wanted the piece to be something largely empty for Emma to fill, something driven by her input, based around capturing voices. The

idea of using fabric in part of the piece fed into my ideas of objects that were digitally absorbent, able to capture elements of their surroundings or to somehow absorb pieces of passing events. Each porcelain piece was made individually by methods of impressing the porcelain into moulds or imprinting shapes into it. These methods each echoed the idea of the piece centring on impressions or traces of absorbed experience. Each clasp differed subtly from the rest, yet collectively they appeared to be anonymous; a quality that extended to the identification of each piece once recorded.

Emma also responded strongly through sharing with me aspects of her relationship with her young daughter. I chose to make a piece that fitted with Emma’s own perspectives of jewellery as valuable within human emotional relationships, something that centred on capturing voices and sharing stories or knowledge and something for her and her daughter to share.

Traditional connotations of antique and conventional jewellery were used as a setting for a piece that acted to capture fragments of sound or specifically speech, echoing how heirloom objects capture aspects of their owners through the marks or wear and tear embedded within the object. The separate components of the piece acted together to make a recording possible.

Placing the pearl on the velvet turned the pieces on, then by placing a fresh clasp on the velvet the piece began to record. As speech or other sound is recorded it was registered by or associated to that particular clasp. When the clasp was removed from the velvet the recording was completed. If or when the same clasp was replaced on the velvet at any future point the piece would always play the recording associated with it. The placement of the pieces on the velvet as the activator of the recording or playing of the sounds was an important, gentle way of interacting similar to exploring heirlooms in a jewellery box.

Unlike most recording devices each clasp could only be used in a recording once and could not be re-recorded or amended. The concept was about capturing speech or sound rather than recording pre-planned perfect messages. The objects acted as blanks onto which to catch something fleeting.

I felt the piece could potentially be a way to capture the beauty in everyday experiences, traces of existence and to reflect Emma’s wish to always “be there, in person if possible”

for her daughter. The objects are ways of passing on thoughts and moments of experience.

The idea is based on the notion of heirloom jewellery, as something that is passed on and that embeds aspects of someone’s life, through markings and wear, but that is now digitally extended into something where audio can be passed on and shared (in addition see Appendix B section 2).