Day 21

I am going home.

Day 20

Second last day of our trip!

Inga and I went to the mountains and had a great time. I think it was a good wrap up of our journey.

It has been forever since I saw mounted snow. The view was amazing and I took so many photos but none of my selfies came out good. It was quite warm, which made everything easier for us and I felt very relieved.

I cannot believe we are going home tomorrow.

Day 18

First thing in the morning was to visit Peter Bauhuis' studio.

Being able to look at his works and to play around with them were really cool.

My favouite work from his studio were the vessels from casting with two different molds poured in at the same time.

It gave such a beautiful contrast of the colours!

When we went over to the gallery his works were exhibited, we got to see more vessels and they were beautiful!

I like the way he put some of his vessels under lighting , casting a shadow. I think they look better under lighting and I liked inside of his vessels, they were very precious!!

He does a lot of experiments and I love the way they turned out.

It was a really good studio visit.

Day 17

Everyone made their way to the castle but I chose to wander around and explore Munich more! It was good to have some time to myself, had a very chilled day in such a long time.

Day 16

Pinokitech

The building was amazingly built, I especially loved the ceiling, and they had such a wide range of works on show!

I liked most of the things there, starting with paintings, furnitures, technology and the vessels from the old days, jewellery and so much more. It was a big space and so much to absorb in. I think paintings and the old vessels were my favourite.

Day 15

Beer hall

I liked the ceiling of the Beer Hall and food was ok.

Day 8

Day trip!

Gallery Marzee & CODA

CODA had such a wide range of broch collections! I was overwhelmed by the amount of brooches I saw at the gallery. I really liked Lucy Sarneel's ring collection! I like how they were all in similar shapes and form but each individual had unique qualities.

Marzee

Although many pieces were on their way to Munich, we still got to look at  wide spectrum of jewellery!

I recognized many of the works, going through each drawers, and I quite enjoyed reading the books afterwards.

Had a very long day.

Day 7

Ruudt Peter 

Many of the works we saw today were made out of resin and he had black in majority of his works.

I loved the blown glass sculpture, loved the sound of it. I really loved his ring!! It was a chunky, about 6cm long, cylindrical ring made out of resin, the exterior felt like soft wood and could see each black drops inside has formed into black, loosened thin lines. It definitely didn't fit me but I just wanted to keep it as an artwork.

Galerie Rob Koudijs

I really enjoyed the collection of works the gallery presented. My favourite was Francis Willemstijn's pair of earrings! It represented a map of Amsterdam, which she developed a system, then transferred the old map on oak, with use of silver as lines dividing parts of the map. And of course, they were so expensive that I could not afford.

Gallery Ra

Gallery Ra had exhibited works of Jorge Manilla and Nils Hint as their current exhibition along with many other artists' collections.

Jorge Manilla exhibited collection of black broches of flowers she took as main inspiration in symbols and shape.

The shapes of the work were quite violent to me, but there was something aesthetically pleasing about it, and I could feel the warmth, although all the materials were black. 

Nils Hint's work was a collection of tools and everyday objects, such as combs and hair pins. They were both ended, one end was gold plated and they seemed quite mass produced. I think his works seemed quite industrialised overall.

Day 6

Day 6

02/03

Ela Bauer visit

We had  a busy day ahead of us and got to start our day off with heavy rain on our way to visit Ela Bauer's studio. We had the chance to look at many of her previous works, draw by draw. The majority of her works were colourful and also quite playful. She has worked a lot with resin and silicon, and it was very tempting to touch them!

Bauer has worked with many small scaled objects, as well as bigger scaled adornments. I did not buy any rings I have tried on but I definitely enjoyed putting her silicon and resin rings on my fingers.

Peter Hoogeboom

I liked one of the glass pieces that made a really nice sound.

Day 13

Laura Deakin & Mari Ishikawa's studio visit

I liked both of their works very much!

Laura's jewellery with pearls were so precious, the designs were simple and elegant.

She seemed very passionate about her work and definitely encouraging for us to participate in competitions to challenge ourselves and to gain experience from those activities. Hearing her talk about her product and artistic line definitely made me contemplate on how I would be able to manage my works after I graduate.

Mari's current exhibition 'parallel world', was about different worlds always existing simultaneously and that we are always able to find. Mari has used akoya pearls in her works and I liked the way she has only used one pearl per piece of work, making it seem more precious and valuable.

She said she was very attracted to lights and shadows, and her works in Moonlight Shadow were very organic and mysterious.

Day 12

Our last destination Munich!!

We went straight off to exhibition to get our Munich Jewellery week started!
Got to see many works we have already came across and I bought a gemstone setting book!

Day 11

Goldsmith's house

Herman Hunger's pieces were brilliant!

I remember having such a hard time trying to do my cloissone last year, being so fiddly and taking up so much time and didn't quite turn out perfectly. But his series of works were really amazing. They are precise, finish of the work is beautiful and everything was just perfect. The lines are so fine and it must have took him ages to finish them!! The artist even set the stones on same piece of metal as he's done his cloisonne on. We weren't able to touch the pieces but the backing of the brooches seemed well finished also.

Museum visit

I quite enjoyed the museum.

The Japanese exhibition of woodblock printing was very interesting to see. I personally felt as if I was looking at a westernized Japanese cartoon. The history of Japanese art being introduced into the Western society was fascinating.

The woodblock printing also remained as a convenient technique to reproduce written texts.

Day10

On our way to Frankfurt

Day 9

Although we could not see the jewellery exhibition in Stedelijk museum, we still got to enjoy other running exhibitions.

It was good seeing Marc Chagall's famous cubism paintings, along with Segantini, Matisse and many more.

Van Gough's museum was amazing.

It was extremely crowded as it was a Sunday but every single piece of work was so worth looking in to!

I loved his paintings, every single one of them, and his letters to his brother were also memorable. I had the chance to hear it from the audio phone, translated into English, and I must say they were very artistic. 

I think I really enjoyed reading the letters because they were very personal and emotional. They show struggles and hardships he encountered to have a successful career as an artist, and that  show he was so passionate about art that he could never give it up in any circumstances.

I really wanted to stay longer but had to get going to do some exploring.  

I got off at Dam Square, walked over to the Nine Streets, wandered around in the rain, trying to find some unique, warm clothing to bring back home with me. Actually ended up buying a pair of shoes and a hoodie.

Dinner was outside of the hostel, at 'Moders' and I enjoyed my plate. But I think everyone really enjoyed their desserts!

Day 5

We are going to Amsterdam!!!

Day 4

We had an early start with our first destination being London Bridge. The weather was warm, but I started to freeze when we walked over the bridge.

I can't remember name of the glass gallery we visited after the textile museum, but I loved all the works in there. I especially enjoyed the tiniest threads of glass contained inside the large glass tubes in every different colour, stacked by rows against the wall. The lighting behind a rack made the bubbles inside the glass tube clearer, and it made me feel like  I was in a science lab, inventing something. His glass works were really cool!!

Peter Layton's satellite dish made of small fragments of clear glass was beautiful. I thought it would be a nice chandellier when hung down from the ceiling.    

One of artist I really liked was Harry Morgan. His works show different states of materiality, using processes that fluctuate between accident and control. Morgan also believes materials have different states or phases, and that glass sits in an unusual place within those conditions.  His works made me reflect back on my glass classes I took last year. In the class, I tried really hard to be in control of what I wanted to make, but at the same time, I was also waiting for that little accident to happen, for mysterious and uncertain outcomes. 

Donna Brennan's studio visit was very helpful. I especially like upstairs where she worked.

I was very interested in her way of producing works with different approaches, one artistic and the other being a product line. I think I have learnt the most on taking different approaches when working as an individual or for the gallery, and problems encountered when orders are received and you are expected to reproduce the work multiple times in a short amount of time.

 Our last night in London!

Day 3

We started the day off at an Italian restaurant and granola was so fresh! Salmon and avocado was just ok, nothing special but the coffee was good :):)

Our visit to Studio fusion was helpful, getting to know more about how gallery runs and how it is commissioned amongst the artists. Discussion on target of the customer was also helpful, that customers coming into those types of galleries are looking for unique designs, not for the materials.

V&A's jewellery collection was awesome! We got to look at different types of jewellery from the early days till now. They had so many gemstones!! Which was very exciting and it was good to see transition of the designs.

I must say Saatchi gallery has such an amazing gallery space!! Everything is spaced out, neat and tidy. I think it was one of my favourite gallery spaces I have been to. 

Then we went to a Chinese restaurant and it was very  delicious :)

Day 2

Our second day was a free day to ourselves!!

Shianne, Aaron and I decided to go to Camden market , then wander around the London city.

We walked forever to get to the British Museum, as Aaron insisted to walk. Nonetheless, we could not explore and observe artworks or the place leisurely as we ran out of time for our next schedule and Shianne and I lost Aaron.

We had more time to observe the artworks at Tate, and they had few exhibition running, but could not see as the queue was forever!! However, Tate had nice mixture of bits of everything and it was good to see some of abstract expressionists' works such as Picasso and Braque's paintings again in a different space. I especially liked one of the kinetic works by jeanne Pierre Yvaral 'Kinetic Relief - Optical Acceleration 1963). Her work changes movement quite rapidly as the viewer changes position. I liked her works because it has many different perspectives to how we can view the artwork and often, our situations or surroundings can change its perspective depending on how we view it.

Finally dinner time! We all headed down to a nearby Indian restaurant to our hostel and I quite enjoyed it.

Day 21

In transit for a wonderful 24 hours of fun.

Day 20

Today the sickness got me. I felt it coming on last night but ignored it and now it is not good. I had a slow morning and then at about 12pm went out in search of soup which took way longer than expected. after that when I was sitting in the hostel eating my soup and felling sorry for myself I met a dude from Newcastle that was now living in Germany and was in Munich for some brewer exam, yes thats right some Aussie moved to Germany to learn how to make beer, and its pretty much the dream. anyway he coerced me with the promise of sun and beer to accompany him to the English Garden which I did and was totally worth it. we sat and chatted for a little, each taking turn to talk about our craft and it was obvious that both of us could hear the passion in the other which is nice, I think it has been a while since someone really asked me about what I like and why I like making jewellery and even just about little things and honestly it was really great to just talk about the act of making and not about the object. afterwards as the sun started to go down we headed further down to where the surfing was and watched it for a little, man it is so so cool and i felt so much envy towards them, not only for being able to surf but for being in the water, I really really miss the ocean and I think it is getting to me. later that night we all went out for a final dinner as a group to the same restaurant we had visited as we first got to Munich. I think it was a really good ending and although the trip had ups and downs I think it was really rewarding and eye-opening and I really really thank Karin for the opportunity that she has given us and guided us through.

Day 19

Today we went to Dachau Concentration Camp which was a really confronting experience. I think being in Australia we aren't often confronted with the reality of war and it was quite an eye opening experience, afterwards I felt myself in a sort of sorrowful daze for the rest of the day.

Day 18

Today we spent most of our time with Peter Bauhuis, first in his studio and then later we met him at his exhibition for MJW. firstly, his studio was awesome! it looked exactly like my desk when in the thick of a project, which was a small pinch of validation that being a hurricane maker is totally fine. Anyway, his work was incredible and it was so interesting learning about his process and experimentations with different alloys. It was also really great to see a vast spread of his previous body of work before going to his newest exhibition for MJW. you could definitely see a progression and experimentation through the years ie. looking at scale and alloys. I also found the his work from the academy so interesting, that work he did by drilling through the building! so good! and also the work he did about gallium and the jewellery that was his but he pretended it wasn't, man that guy is a genius! Anyway after the studio we went and got a coffee and then wandered around a little, went to another gallery and had some sushi and then met back up at his gallery space to see his current exhibition with the chain trees which were so amazing, the amount of consideration that goes into creating something that must fall apart to fall together, such an amazing idea and beautifully executed. also in the other room of the gallery I really enjoyed the works were he used the alloys of the European coins to do his lost wax casting, and the duality between the gold and blackened alloy was incredible. After Peter's a few of us went in search of no. 31 on the map which was a really beautiful exhibition at Gallery Shanghai featuring the very large body of work 'Kiene Vase' or 'I am not a vase' by Jing Yang. Each of her pieces were geometric vases but cut into sections, so each 20mm band was individually crafted to create these vessels, it was so incredible. there was one wall in the exhibition with the artists notes on it and it was insane how much calculation and detail was in each piece. I was really taken by just how much work was presented by the artist, although there were a few galleries that exhibited just one artist, it was not where near as vast an exhibition, I found the whole thing very inspirational.

Day 17 Munich March 13th

We took a day trip by train to see Neuchwanstein Castle, it was one of the best things I’ve seen not just the castle but the train trip seeing different things out the window, it was all very green and scenic, with the mountains having ice all over them. We had a tour around the inside of the castle it was all highly decorative and lavish as expected. One of the main details I saw was the very large stone settings on the many huge chandeliers, I think some of them in the dance hall area could hold one hundred candles. It was a really great day out of the city atmosphere.

Day 16 Munich March 12th

Today we started at the Pinakothek with a look around at the collection I was impressed to see the works of Lisa Walker downstairs. We went to go have a look at the New Zealanders exhibition Handshake. The whole room had white washing hanging from strung out lines, you couldn’t help but push the garments out of your way as you walked around. I liked the way technology had been used with phone like devices showing videos in the pockets of clothing. We then looked at the work of Karen Pontoppidan Knell Titled Gender Bell. A line of bells had been strung along the wall, each very different in material, and what was inside; but all the same size identical from afar.  All the bells stitched very beautify together with small metal wire holding the various sheets together. The fun lay in look inside each bell to see the material differences.

Day 15 Munich March 11th

Today we went off to the Munich markets to look at some of the more tourist like attractions. We ate some Currywurst and some ginger biscuits, and looked around. We came across a stall that had a range of dried organic materials that I really liked looking at. In the night time, we all made our way to the jewellers’ dinner in a massive beer hall, it was very busy with interesting atmosphere.

Day 14 Munich March 10th

The exhibition titled “A Barbarian, A Title, And a Miracle”, I was firstly really impressed with the set out, it allowed a lot of movement around the room, the aim was for all of the jewellery works to sit next to each other and not be split up. Each work was coded by a coloured piece of wood, with long tables jutting out from the walls. I liked the works of Carina Shoshtary that had detailed and mixed colour fragments that looked like twigs and cacoons. Also, the work of Mielle Harvey that had drawings on ridged squares, and cast objects such as birds.

Next we went to an exhibition tilted “Initiation” and I really liked seeing the repousse work of Gabriele Hinze, mostly brooches hanging from the inside covers of old books fallen apart. The display of rings by Anna Fanigina was interesting it made the rings seem very delicate and venerable as they balanced, hung from strings and suspended on sheets of Perspex.

(Carina Shoshtary)

                                                                       (Mielle Harvey)

                                                      (Anna Fanigina)

Day 13 Munich March 9th

We started the very rainy day with visiting the studios of Laura Deakin and Mari Ishikawa. It was great to see how they had set up their studios, with the equipment they require for their practice. Mari explained the process of how her organic brooches are cast, and I also really liked the red stitching in her works. Laura then took us by train to her exhibition space and showed us some very different work to that seen in her studio. I found her stories helpful of how she studied in Australia and moved to Germany to attend the Academy, and it also made me think how dedicated you must be to make such a big move, she was very honest with her struggles.

                                                                  (Mari Ishikawa)

                                                                    (Laura Deakin)

Day 12 Travel Frankfurt to Munich Wed March 8th

We arrived at Munich just after lunch time, dropped our bags and went straight to the exhibition to start Munich jewellery week. We bought our copies of Current Obsession with our maps ready to study and mark out what to see. I saw a lot of recognisable names I had learnt about and seen along our travels, and noticed a lot of work had come from Israel. It was interesting to see how the different galleries we had visited had set up their displays, some discussing how what they bring must be light and easy to set up in a day.

Day 11 Frankfurt Tue March 7th

We took a train to visit Deutche Goldschmiedehaus, what I liked most was Hermann Jungers necklaces that came in a box with interchangeable components that forced the wearer to make decisions in putting it together. I also liked the use of black and gold in his works mostly seen in the brooches. He had displayed old half destroyed objects such as old plastic balls, rusted sheet metal, crushed cans and wax blobs and from this made work. Technically I liked looking at the brooch backs and how larger stones had been set.

Day 10 Travel Day Amsterdam to Frankfurt:

Today I took in the change of architecture now in Germany, as we took a walk to the old town.

                                                                  

Day 9 Amsterdam Sunday March 5th:

We visited the Stedelijk Museum and stayed for a while, I really like the Jean Tinguely retrospective using everyday materials such as appliance parts, machine parts and old clothing that combined the evolving consumer society with movement and sound. The drawing machines reminded me of the experimental drawing unit we did in first year, and made me think about handmade and machine made. I came across a lot of works that incorporated layering and riveting.

Day 8 Amsterdam to Apeldoorn:

Today we travelled to Apeldoorn by train to visit CODA Museum I enjoyed the exhibition titled Lucy Sarneel Private Territory in Public. Many of the neckpieces where made from zinc and had a lot of fine detail, but also had a nice blue grey colour that was very industrial looking but made into organic forms. She also had a work that was completely rusty.

After this we went to Galerie Marzee it was a huge almost overwhelming space. A work I really liked was by Dana Hakim titled My Four Guardian Angles, from the Blue Series. It was made from iron netting that had been pieced together and sewn with a bright blue thread, the work looked much like birds’ nests to me, and it was about how we live in a fearful society and how the net is like a safety material.

                                                                         (Lucy Sarneel)

  (Dana Hakim)

Day 7 Amsterdam Friday March 3rd:

We Visited Ruudt Peters today he discussed his retrospective exhibition “BRON” that he was in the progress of planning. He said he always tries to challenge the viewer with his jewellery, he never wants the viewing experience to be easy. Corpus was a work he talked about that involved physical performance of boys standing in jackets as part of the work, and others made the viewer climb up ladders to see his work. Overall, I liked his discussion of involvement and interaction as part of his works. He was philosophical in discussion of surfaces being mirrored and shiny, his works all seemed to be very black and I really liked the glass work. We also got to see his collection of jewellery.

Then we went to Galerie Rob Koudijs, there was two exhibitions showing one by Terhi Tolvanen and one by Ralph Bakker. The back latches of the necklaces by Ralph Bakker really caught my attention as new approaches for cold joining. Terhi Tolvanens use of large pieces of wood, that had been painted I also really liked. We spent a great deal of time in the draws filled with jewellery, the work I liked the most was by Francis Willemstijn that was very fine metal maps with wood for a backing.

I really enjoyed the Galeria RA visit, it had a good collection of works. The two artists on display with the first being Jorge Manila, his works hung from the white walls casting great shadows, organic looking but some pieces also looking like dead fruit bats on a power line. Very decayed but you could see the stitching forming and holding the thick black material together. Nils Hint had a large collection of tools that had been forged and made double ended, with gold platting on the ends; spoons spanners and combs. They seem to contrast each other, as if one end was industrial and the gold end was domestic activity. Today we saw a lot of jewellery and I enjoyed looking at new materials and how the jewellers had manipulated them, as well as joining methods and approaches to brooch backs.

                                                   ( Ruudt Peters)

                                                    (Terhi Tolvanens)

                                                                     (Francis Willemstijn)

                                                                               (Nils Hint)

                                                              (Jorge Manila)

Day 6 Amsterdam March 2nd

We went to the studio of Ela Bauer she discussed her love for collecting benches she had a lot of space and stated to pull her works out of draws and spreading them out. Her work incorporated big amounts of colour and made you want to touch them. I was most interested in the transparent and colour combinations joining, as well as the stitching. Her work looked much better worn on the body rather than flat on a bench. I started thinking about combinations of metal and silicon.

Next, we visited Peter Hoogeboom he had his studio within his home, in a small room; it was interesting to see his setup and how he works from a small space. His work was very technical with ceramic processes. The pieces he showed us were very delicate and beautifully coloured with glazes; the pink looking very bodily. The neckpieces also played with noise as the small ceramic bottle shapes hit together. The works are cumbersome and heavy but delicate at the same time.

                                                ( Works by Ela Bauer)

Day 4 London 28th

Today we took a very cold walk over London bridge on our way to the Fashion and textile museum to see the works of Josef Frank he had very organic and vibrant patterns in his works. Large sheets of materials hung from the ceiling and smaller sketches hung nearby.

Studio Fusion Gallery was next, we looked at the works by many jewellers, and had an in-depth discussion about how the gallery operates as a cooperative between seven people; I feel I learnt a lot about how it operated at a day to day level, from placement of jewellery and taking photos of works. I liked the works of Grace Girvan as she set Black rocks that looked like river pebbles, and also looking at the examples of riveting and use of colour.

Caroline Broadhead gave us a tour around Central Saint Martins, the jewellery workshop at the art school at London, it had 140 jewellery students, 45 intakes of first years, and the library had a great selection of materials that you could consult when required to help with your works.

London Day 3 Feb 27th:

Uncommon Ground was an exhibition about landscape works it had detailed observation of the landscape, I enjoyed the prints the most due to the negative spaces, and the use of greens and browns throughout the works.

Next, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum this had a great collection of jewellery ending in contemporary works. I was interested in the black cast iron jewellery made in Berlin in 1830 at the time ladies traded away their gold for these as a sign of patriotism. The works had very fine detail with lace like patterns.

Sachi Gallery was next, the print room had some works that had been formed from etching and corroding zinc sheet by Arlaric Hammond I really liked these.

(Print from Uncommon Ground)

                                  (Zinc, etched plates, Arlaric Hammond)

London Day 2 Sunday 26th:

We went to the Camden Markets (very Busy) had some food and a looked around, next we went to the British Museum I spent the most amount of time in the European Jewellery section, I found a large glass case with small fragments of silver inside, this turned out to be a Viking hoard, with tiny combs and patterned silver. The Cuerdale hoard was found in a lead chest besides the river with 7500 coins, 1200 bullion it was the largest know to western Europe 40kg in total. I also got to see a work I had looked at that informed a previous work I had made this was the ceramic work of Yee Sookyung, Translated vase. After this I went to the Tate Modern and was impressed to see surrealist works of Miro and Dali.