Into the fold: a mixed-media approach leads to new thinking in fine jewellery design
![Artist Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki (sitting on a white chair and wearing a geometric dress) and jeweller Anna Jewsbury (Wearing a blue dress with thigh slits and resting on a white table beside Ekaterina) placed against a wide window in an artistic studio with scuptured around the room and a book shelf](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oy7295qgohXaW25xRoaej9-415-80.jpg)
In the four short years since she created her London jewellery label, Completedworks, artistic director Anna Jewsbury has displayed a knack for converting abstract ideas into ready-to-wear reality. Her early Pillar collection, for instance, referenced ancient cultures as fine fragments of Doric marble columns set into gold rings and chains. Since 2013, Jewsbury, a former maths student, and her business-partner brother, Mark, have continued to leverage academic leanings in stylish collections that resonate across both the design and jewellery worlds. Hence, Dover Street Market was an early adopter.
This September, when the brand exhibits at London and Paris Fashion Weeks, marks a change of direction for Jewsbury. Taking a more visceral approach to her craft, she will present Completedworks’ Fold collection, a joint project with London-based artist Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki, who has created a related series of Fold ceramics.
‘This collection is a big move for me,’ Jewsbury admits. ‘Fold uses gold to imitate another material – the liquid marble that Ekaterina has used for her ceramics. That deception offers something you don’t expect in the design.’
Jewsbury’s earrings from the Fold collection
To celebrate the launch of their artistic coming together, the pair have designed a unique Fold piece especially for Wallpaper*, a brass bangle that circles the wrist like a just-crumpled piece of shiny paper.
The Fold project emerged after jeweller and artist were introduced by a mutual friend, fashion designer Yulia Kondranina. ‘I was the art director for Yulia’s S/S16 show and I wanted to include some jewellery, so I asked her if she knew any designers,’ recalls Bazhenova-Yamasaki. ‘Yulia immediately said, “Yes, Anna”. I had a look at what she was doing and thought it was perfect. We met when I went to pick up some of her jewellery.’
The Kondranina show presented Jewsbury with a platform to explore new forms beyond the intimate scale that fine jewellery design demands. It led Bazhenova-Yamasaki to think differently, too. Having worked across video, photography and performance, she had a nagging impulse to ‘stop being so conceptual’ and create a product. That steered her towards the tactile possibilities of ceramics.
The pair concocted the idea of a related body of work around a single theme: each would produce a collection directly inspired by the other’s medium. The result is Fold, which comprises an 11-piece jewellery collection by Completedworks and 15 related ceramic works by Bazhenova-Yamasaki.
The project made for a happy fit: ‘We began by exchanging ideas and checking in with each other every few weeks to see what the other had produced,’ Bazhenova-Yamasaki says. ‘The dynamic was really natural.’ Jewsbury was working in brass, while, after a period of trial and error with stoneware and porcelain, Bazhenova-Yamasaki settled on liquid marble, because ‘the results are so tactile’. But she admits that the material – a mix of porcelain and marble often used in sculpture – was difficult to work with: ‘You have be quick because it dries really fast.’
That challenge was a turning point. ‘As Ekaterina’s ceramics progressed in a more abstract way, with the liquid marble generally dictating its own forms, we started tuning into the manipulative quality of materials and how they can act in ways that you can’t foresee,’ says Jewsbury. Working initially in brass allowed the jewellery designer to create conceptual pieces on a bigger scale. ‘It really started to work when we stopped thinking of it as “here’s a fold, there’s a fold” and began giving in to natural movement,’ she says of the finished jewellery pieces, which are created in gold, with castell-set diamonds toppling among the folds. ‘It’s all come together like an accident – only a really pleasant one,’ concludes Bazhenova-Yamasaki.
As originally featured in the September 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*222)
Brass bangle, designed for Wallpaper* by Completedworks, inspired by the Fold collection, which includes sculptures by Bazhenova-Yamasak. Scarf by Pringle of Scotland. Photography: Marc Hibbert. Fashion: Lune Kuipers
INFORMATION
See Fold at London Fashion Week’s Designer Showrooms, 15-19 September. For more information, visit the London Fashion Week website, the Completedworks website, and Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki’s website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Caragh McKay is a contributing editor at Wallpaper* and was watches & jewellery director at the magazine between 2011 and 2019. Caragh’s current remit is cross-cultural and her recent stories include the curious tale of how Muhammad Ali met his poetic match in Robert Burns and how a Martin Scorsese Martin film revived a forgotten Osage art.
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
All smiles: How a grillz jewellery making class in London became an international hit
What started as a passion project quickly exploded in popularity. We get the story behind the grillz-making workshop at Cockpit London
By Elisa Anniss Published
-
Emerging jewellery designers to get to know
These independent, new and emerging jewellery designers and brands from New York to Paris are firmly on our radar
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Jewellery designers share their most precious personal pieces
A host of jewellers give us a peek at the jewellery which brings them joy and solace
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Playing it cool: pearls are having a moment
We've been deep-diving into boutiques around the world to find the very best calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form. It seems jewellers have been busy rethinking pearls, with contemporary (and often affordable) results
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Eternity rings for the modern couple
Eternity rings, whether sleekly minimalist or sprinkled in diamonds, can be a chic and contemporary love token
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Alternative engagement rings with an edge
As the sales of engagement rings sky-rocket during lockdown, enjoy our off-kilter curation of edgy and unconventional engagement rings
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
Hair jewellery to covet and collect
Today’s hair jewellery is both practical and pretty. We're pinning our hopes on these simple and elegant accessories
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
CryptoPunks come to life on Tiffany & Co pendants
Tiffany & Co has partnered with blockchain infrastructure company Chain to create custom pendants and NFTiffs
By Hannah Silver Last updated