Mix N Match

This is a collection of seven bracelets with seven seperate themes inspired by the wonderful nature I am surrounded with here on Kangaroo Island.



Each bracelet is made up of glass beads I made from Italian glass on my torch in my caravan studio and then wirewrapped in sterling silver. Some bracelets incorporate semi precious stones and swarovski crystals.
The collection is my contribution to the Settlement Day exhibition in celebration of the 170th anniversary of the first settlers to South Australia. The settlement of Kingscote on Kangaroo Island was the first attempt of the free settlers to settle in South Australia on July 27th 1836.

The theme for the exhibition was Pioneering - Past and Present. My interpretation on this was to incorporate the ancient art of glasswork to create glass beads for jewellery to be worn in a contemporary manner.

Each bracelet can be worn on its own or connected to another (or more) bracelets to be worn as a necklace of different lengths. Hence the title of the piece - Mix N Match.

In my hurry to get the display organised and the piece to the gallery in Kingscote (45 km from where I live) I scanned the connected bracelets without realising that there were only six connected - so you will only see six bracelets in the photo above this. When we got to the gallery, it was a beehive of activity, the committee had been working hard all through the weekend to repaint the gallery and reorganise the space for the exhibition. There were three new glass cabinets for the various jewellery artistes and so it was still "getting sorted out" when we arrived and by the time I had sorted out the display in my new case, it was late in the afternoon, I was stressed and too tired to think straight........ so we left town to come home and i realised I had not taken a photo of my exhibit in its pretty velvet lined display box!!!

I will do that when I next go in to Kingscote and post it here.........

The ensemble took a bit of working out - I wanted to have a variety of different inspirations and still keep a similar "look" for each bracelet so that when they were connected to each other, they would not look too contradictory or uncoordinated. I used sterling silver lobster clasps to ensure that they would clasp on securely and not be too distracting or break up the continuous flow when connected to each other.