Todd Pownell use jewellery as a form of conceptual communication to express a thousand words that cannot be articulated verbally. By focusing on the meticulous attention to the craft, a dialogue is established between the designer and the wearer, forging a sense of intimacy and secrecy. The Tap collection evolves from an emotional experience to an aesthetic form, using the intrinsic properties of gems, metal and construction to create an exquisite collection that is raw, rugged as well as precised and sophisticated. For Pownell it is a vehicle for freely expressed desires and nomadic thoughts, focusing on the heavy influence of the romanticism period in the 18th century.
I am awed by the designer's captivating method of embedding diamonds in reverse and the deliberate randomised scattering across designs in multiples or individually. With these inverted settings the diamonds captures the reflection of light in a succession of broad flashes from oblique angles, creating a feeling of serene twilight or in contrast, a gathering storm in the night's sky.
Pownell uses the contrast of light and dark metals in concoction with diamonds conjures a sense of unpredictability and mystery. I am fascinated by the way the inverted diamonds emerges from the metal as if naturally occurring.
If jewellery was an organic material in nature, then Todd Pownell's designs are exactly how I would imagine it would be.
