Starting a first ever blog post is notoriously difficult for most bloggers. I was looking for something that will inspire me to get the ball rolling and was finding it extremely hard to come by as there are so many options available to me in the world of contemporary jewellery design. I spent weeks if not months contemplating different topics, deleting posts, editing topics, countless of tea consumed and finally heading to bed late at night with thoughts and ideas still running through my head.
I religiously read magazines, blog posts and websites about jewellery (I do feel blogs about jewellery is underrepresented) and it was one particular jewellery website that I've encountered Shimell & Madden's Cuboid Collection, which has been around for a while. My personal taste in jewellery involves contemporary shapes and the ability to layer and this collection of necklaces caught my eyes with immediate effect.
"Shimell and Madden occupy the space where craft, art and fashion intersect. Makers of jewellery and objects, they explore ideas of science, nature and time"
The symbolic and mathematical driven duo from Shoreditch, East London created geometric pieces that involves intrigue, mystery and simplicity and I am curious to find out more. As an arts graduate we naturally have an inquisitive mind and the collection is similar to visiting an art exhibition and finding out the concept behind the piece, both factually and forming our own opinions. The press images of the necklaces suspended in air certainly do not look out of place in an art gallery.
What's curious to me is that the necklaces evoke distance memories of me being in a math class, doodling images of a wonky cube in my notebook (I have to admit, drawing more than once to get the cuboid dimension and proportion right). The combination of math, science and art in jewellery is a collaboration that requires in depth exploration and excitable musings.
The 3D-looking
necklaces comes in oxidised silver, sterling silver and gold with long
matching chain. The necklace
can easily be layered with different geometric shapes available,
creating an optical illusion of congruent stacked cubes. The pendant is worn at chest to mid-level, a position that makes perfect sense as this is the part of our body with the
biggest surface area, hypnotically drawing attention to the perspective-inspired necklace.
Geometric themes in jewellery has been around for a while and with Shimell and Madden at the helm there is no stopping the trend now.
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| Aluna Francis from electronic duo Aluna George wearing Shimell & Madden necklace in her music video Your Drums, Your Love |
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| Images from Shimell & Madden |
