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• eMail: eJEWELS
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<eJEWELS> – <eJ>
<eJt>– is at ' the hub' of a network of cultural producers. <eJ> is based 'on-the-hill' – Trevallyn – near Launceston in Tasmania and almost exclusively, <eJ> produces work on a commission basis. Ray Norman is the principal <DESIGNERmaker> and facilitator in the network.
 
Collaborative and cooperative making is a time honoured tradition in <JEWELmaking> and <eJ>– celebrates this tradition – but in a 21st Century context. Over 40 years Ray has built a considerable network of makers with expertise in a diversity of materials and processes. By commissioning a work with <eJEWELS> the commissioner enters a negotiated partnership with Ray and often someone within the network – and ultimately the <eJ> the total network in turn.
 
Typically the commissioning process is facilitated by the Internet as is the briefing process. This is not to say that <OLDtechnologies> have no place, they do! Rather, ever expanding communication opportunities allow for new collaborations that are multidimensional, dynamic and unconstrained by place – but at the same time 'the making' is invariably informed by the commissioner's placedness and storytelling.
 

GUIDING STATEMENT

By simply manipulating precious materials one does not make jewels. The interplay between materials their materiality and 'process' informs jewels. <JEWELmaking> responds to all this but ultimately there is storytelling to do with relationships, place, people and more. This is at the heart of a <JEWELmaker's> relationship between material, a story and ultimately, its possessor/keeper. Stories exist in our collective cultural memories, and jewels carry <CULTURALcargo> that is finally recounted in the wearer's/possessor's stories and storytelling. <JEWELmakers> tell – reinterpret & reiterate – stories. We think that a jewel without a story is no jewel at all

'Preciousness' is an expansive idea. The Egyptians imagined gold as <GODflesh>, the Incas imagined it as <GODdroppings> and silver as <MOONtears>. Similarly, gems are invested with symbolism and meaning. The cutting of gems has been equated with the shaping of the soul and their possession with the realisation of self and enlightenment. Pearls can signify <THEfeminine>, chastity and purity; onyx spiritual strength and conjugal happiness; and diamonds innocence, invincibility and sincerity. In unison, maker and wearer evoke meaning, magic and preciousness in jewels – often with various parts of the body in mind.

For jewels, the relationship between maker and possessor is loaded and that's as it should be.

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