Pierce Healy’s work is different jewellery for different beasts. A natural storyteller, he works intuitively to imbue the metal with day-to-day life, and creates layers of textures resulting in tactile jewellery which is as dark, industrial and raw as it is playful and fun.
How did you come to jewellery design?
Well it’s a long story! As a teenager, I was just into music, it was all I cared about. I was in a band called Vocal Disorder, I wrote songs and played guitar, we played around Dublin and eventually we moved to San Francisco. I ended up being there twelve years, and one day I happened across a gold prospecting shop. They sold gold metal detectors, stuff for gold mining and jewellery making tools. So I bought a load of tools, some silver, and a book on the Navaho Indians’ jewellery and how to make it, and started experimenting. I always loved rings, I don’t know why exactly, a bit like holding on to your grandmother’s ring or such. I went on for years welding precious metals, and other different stuff. At the same time I was a draughtsman, I drew blueprints for engineers and architects, so that’s what funded all this.
Because I had a day job, I was able to experiment and not worry too much about the value of materials. I kept playing and playing and eventually I started making work that people liked and which I took to small galleries in San Francisco. I did a jewellery course there, and a couple of shows. My engraving came in when I happened to meet an Armenian engraver, who was the only engraver in San Francisco. He was a great storyteller and so was I, so we got on really well! He agreed to teach me to hand-engrave, which has sort of brought me to the work I do now.
When I came back to Dublin from San Francisco I went to NCAD and studied metals and design, and from there I went on to Stockholm to study at Konstfack. The department I was in was called Ädellab, which means ‘alchemy and magic’, so it was very free. It was all about getting you to go with your gut, to experiment, to play, to make things first, and then later maybe write some words about it or see what people think. It may not always work, but at least you’ve made something from your gut.
Would you talk us through your processes?
I was always interested in making a mark. With engraving I was doing that, and with drills and files, it’s just now that I’m getting my drawings and ideas onto the pieces. As far as a process – I know everybody says that they start with a drawing, and then develop that, but for me it’s not so much like that. I get a lot of ideas while I’m walking around cities or wherever I am, and I just add up overheard bits of conversations or gossip, slags, whatever, and in particular Dublin slang, and all this stuff comes in like a stew. It all just cooks up, and then when I get down to working, I’ll take my sheets of metal or silver and gold, and I would bash them up with bits of all this information, with engravings and textures. The jewellery isn’t really thought about at that stage, it’s just playing and happy accidents, and seeing what these layers of mark making look like. When I do chop up the sheets, I see which can become rings or pendants or whatever. Then upon that I add more layers of marks, and burn, bruise or melt the metal.
How do you know when the piece is ready?
You just know – you’ve had enough of it! Also, you don’t want to beat the metal too much, because that’s going to give it a shiny look, and I like the raw *[look]*. It’s like when you get a new pair of shoes and they’re all shiny, but then as they’re about to die they’re more comfortable, so why can’t you start with it being beaten up first, as people wear it? It will get shinier and take up the marks of their life. People aren’t as precious with my work because they’re already all scratched, it doesn’t scare people as much. I also re-melt people’s older jewellery and work with them to make or hack new, more interesting pieces.
What are you up to next?
I have an exhibition of my drawings at the moment in the Side by Side exhibition in Kilkenny, under my other name Otto Vanwinklepeterstein, which is then going to Paris, and will then be in Dublin Castle in November. I’m going to Iceland in August for an artist’s residency, to walk, talk, draw, experiment, and gather more stories to create some new work. Here in May in the Irish Design Shop, we are having a jewellers launch, where people are welcome to drop by.
Pierce Healy is stocked at the Irish Design Shop on Drury Street, Dublin 2, above which is his studio, where he is available for commissions (or just a chat). For more on Pierce, she his website www.piercehealy.ie The Irish Design Shop Resident Studio Jewellers Launch takes place on Tuesday 28th May.
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
