Future Focus: Jeweller Designer Fiona Mulholland

In the fourth part of our?Future Focus series where we meet the Future Makers winners, jewellery designer and sculptor Fiona Mulholland talks to us about punk, creative?processes and the allure of?Perspex.

How would you describe your style?
After many years in the arts, I recently returned to my roots in jewellery design to develop limited edition collections and unique pieces inspired by colour, light and pure form. As an interdisciplinary artist, I realise both small and large scale works. A common thread in recent works is the use of light and reflective surfaces and how the luminosity informs materiality and form.

Glow pendants in silver and plexiglass

What does winning a Future Makers award mean to you?
Receiving a Future Makers award is a huge compliment. It is a highly competitive selection process so for your work to be recognised for excellence, creativity and technical ability certainly goes a long way in enhancing one’s professional profile. The award is invaluable to me at this time in terms of supporting the future development of my jewellery business and enables me to continue to fabricate ambitious new works.

Do I believe in magic

What’s your favourite material to work with?
I discovered at the age of 15 that by making coffin lid earrings in copper, I could express my punk ideals through the creative process. I studied Jewellery and Metalwork in college and have had a long standing relationship with metal whether it be silver, gold or steel.?A more recent development has been the inclusion of plastics in my work for its singular qualities. In my jewellery design, I combine precious metals with layers of coloured Perspex to create modular units that fully exploit the luminosity of the material and that can be combined or interchanged. Perspex has a singular way of refracting and filtering light, comes in a large range of vivid colours and a variety of finishes, allowing for endless design possibilities.

Glow pendants in silver and plexiglass

Have you any core values when it comes to design?
It is very important to me that my jewellery design has a relationship to my sculpture practice and is an extension of it rather than in opposition to it. In a world oversaturated with different types of jewellery, my core value is to make quality work which is both sculptural and dynamic yet also challenges the generally accepted ideas about traditional jewellery. It is an art form that has the power to communicate, not only as adornment, but also as a rich symbolic language and I hope to continue to create work that was once described by a journalist as, ?not for the lily-livered?.

Reflections on things yet to come

Where do you see yourself in 20 years?
Hopefully, still in the workshop and continuing to embrace the four Ps; passion, patience, professionalism and persistence in all my creative endeavours but with more time to play.

www.mulhollandjewellery.com

Photo of model Teo Sutra courtesy of Leon Farrell