Future Makers award-winner and recent graduate of NCAD and Goldsmiths University, Dubliner Lorna Boyle flips the traditions of jewellery construction with her inventive and eye-catching designs.
Where did you study?
I started studying in NCAD in 2010 and I didn’t really like it at all at first, but when I got to try out metalwork that really seemed to work for me. I really enjoyed it because in final year you were left to do your own thing, so with my final year project I wanted it to be interactive. They don’t really want you to make commercial jewellery, they want you to have a reason to make stuff, and I thought that this would probably be the last time that I would get to make anything more ‘out-there’ or interesting that no-one would buy!
So I took moulds of cracks around Dublin city and then made them into pieces, so that you could go and find where your ring or neckpiece would fit into. I wanted to do it for myself as I love Dublin and I was always interested in guerrilla art, and it was nice to get out of the studio as well. You do get people looking at you wondering what you’re doing, which was nice.
At first when I did the moulds they were ending up really heavy, so I started thinking about what material I could use that would be really light even for big pieces, and I stumbled on to tin foil. Tin foil is really great if you want to make really quick pieces, and I’ve kind of always used it like that, and I began to really like how it looked so I started looking into how you could actually make pieces out of tin foil. We had an electroform tank in college, which works the same way as with getting rings plated, but you leave it in for a lot longer so it builds up a thick plate. There was a lot of trial and error, but I managed to make these big tin foil pieces that were now solid. A lot of the making in jewellery is really painstaking, and I’m just not that patient, so now I could make loads and loads of models and you only had to choose one and that could take you 10 minutes to make. It’s a great, fast process where you don’t have to worry about making mistakes, you can always just throw it out because it’s only tin foil.
The only bit that is time consuming is the electroforming, as people don’t really want to wear copper, mostly just silver and gold, and I need to get that done elsewhere as the process involves cyanide. I make big batches now, I’ll have no pieces one day and then I go to pick them up and then I have hundreds!
And now you’re over at Goldsmiths?
Yea I studied Craft Design with Jewellery and Metal at NCAD, and then after I left I wanted to look into a masters that was more product design led. I felt I wanted to re-learn how to design again. When you’re in college, it’s a small environment and your tutors are like gods, so I just wanted to step out of that and also to live outside of Ireland. I came over with the intention of not doing jewellery but that’s actually what I am doing, so it’s obviously what I really like.
What are you working on?
I’m just finishing my masters now and my final project is on wedding rings. I’ve been working in a jewellers here and I’ve just been surrounded by wedding ring. I’ve become slightly obsessed with marriage and relationships, and those really crappy television shows like Don’t Tell the Bride! [Laughs] I don’t know what it is exactly, it not as though I’ve been obsessed with getting married since I was a child, but I do find different people’s relationship dynamics really interesting and what bothers me is that everyone goes for bog-standard wedding rings. I’d like to re-invent people’s way of choosing rings, for people to ask ‘why’ and put a bit more thought into why they choose a wedding ring. So I’m making a pack that allows you to make your wedding ring with your partner with a book with a series of activities for you to think about what you would like to include in your ring – something that might spark a memory or a special place that you like to go to and take an imprint of a stone or something. So they make the mould in Sugru, send it back to me and I will cast it for them in whatever material that they want.
Lorna’s work is currently being exhibited at the Iki Galerie in Paris, and will be featured as part of DCCoI’s ‘Portfolio’ critical selection exhibition this September. Her Molten collection (pictured) is available from Atelier 27, Drury Street, Dublin 2. For more see www.lornaboyle.carbonmade.com
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
