Jewellery exhibition closes

Well I have spent two full days dismantling the jewellery exhibition at Whitby Museum this week.  I was not really looking forward to having to replace all the objects I had borrowed from different collections but in the end, just working my way quietly from display case to display case, it wasn't too difficult.

I have really enjoyed the whole process and am still thinking about some of the ideas thrown up in the course of my planning and research.  I hope to be a bit more experimental in my own work in the next few months, but time will tell.

More from the Jewellery exhibition at Whitby Museum

Some of the items in the exhibition are things that were either currency or could have been.  This necklace includes a number of coins with Arabic script but I also think that the coin on the central pendant could have been a tiny British coin.  It is very worn so difficult to be absolutely sure.

Jewellery exhibition opens

The exhibition Jewellery: Materials and Meaning is now open at Whitby Museum, North Yorkshire.  It will run until June 20th 2010 and the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9.30 until 4.30 (last entry 4pm).  The admission charges are £3 with some concessions available and there is a cafe in the museum (which is not open Sundays).

Some of the jewellery shown in this exhibition is not usually on display and it has been a great opportunity to display things selected from the diverse collections - putting items brought back from Pacific islands by early travellers from Whitby, together with Victorian jet and with some of my own work.  There are beads in all kinds of materials, such as the water lily seeds shown here.  I hope the visitors enjoy the detail of these beautifully constructed pieces.

Jewellery exhibition opening soon at Whitby Museum

I have spent a considerable amount of time recently in the planning of an exhibition about jewellery for Whitby Museum.  It will draw upon a number of the museum collections including ethnographic pieces and of course upon the considerable collection of Whitby Jet.  I have had a huge amount of pleasure in looking at and handling items that are perhaps not usually on display and in putting items together when they would more usually be seen in different parts of the museum.

This is detail of a bangle made in Vulcanite, a jet substitute developed when the popular demand for jet could not be met from the locally sourced raw material.  Of the pieces not usually on display one of my personal favourites it the necklace or rosary made of water lily seeds.  They are such beautiful forms.

I have tried to include items like this, made from interesting materials that are often overlooked.  I am planning to have a number of small magnifying glasses for visitors to take a closer look at the detail of the pieces on display.  

Jewellery exhibition

Today I will begin setting up a jewellery exhibition at Whitby Museum.  It is due to open on 30th March 2010 and runs until 20th June.  I still have a huge amount of work to do collecting up the items for display and filling in the object movement forms, all that kind of stuff, but at least I feel as though I know what needs doing now.

This necklace is in the museum collection but not usually on display.  It is made from Water lily seeds.

Does it have to be precious?

Here is a ring made today from a disposable plastic fork.  Obviously in forming it I have broken off a couple of the tines of the fork and made the whole thing quite weak in places and liable to crack...... not really wearable.  Is it jewellery?

What is jewellery?

I am in the process of trying to put some ideas together for a jewellery exhibition at Whitby Museum and find myself asking 'what is jewellery?'