What's New at Small Space
Introducing the handmade sterling silver and gold collection by Susan Ewington, a contemporary jeweller based in Melbourne.
Susan has created her range using Celtic forging techniques, modernising the ribbon torque necklaces and bracelets seen in the excavated hoards of the ancient Celts.
She has developed this technique through the study of anticlastic raising. This is a somewhat modern method of raising thin pieces of metal into structural, strong yet light forms, which are typified as having two curves in its profile.
This is an organic method of production, resulting in each piece being completely unique in form to the next. Therefore, the owner is guaranteed to have their own one-off piece.
Melbourne based designer and keen vintage collector, Lucy King has gone full circle from once designing patterns for tableware company Wedgwood to now utilising cast-out plates to create one-off jewellery pieces under new label, Me Old China.
Lucy’s love for out-dated tableware has influenced her latest direction transforming old kitchen crockery into covetable new jewellery designs. Discarded chinaware is given a new life, crafted into collections of over-scaled jewellery, framed artworks and a range of tongue-in-cheek wall plates, creating quirky nostalgic pieces with a modern twist.
Originally from England, Lucy worked as a surface-pattern ceramic designer at the heart of the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent, where her diverse design style has seen her design for leading national and international companies from Wedgwood UK, to Dansk USA and Freedom Australia.
An avid ‘fossicker’ for kitchen curios, for over a decade Lucy has collected an assortment of antiquated ceramic plates, vintage teacups and retro coffee sets, with part of the appeal being a desire to recycle and reuse her treasured finds.
An essential feature in Lucy’s work is the connection to old-style kitchen paraphernalia and the English love for drinking tea. Jewellery range ‘Fancy a Cuppa’ is a playful take on traditional afternoon tea, featuring retro shaped teapots, kettles, cups and coffee pots cut from second-hand Willow plates.
A side note: The brand name ‘Me Old China’ refers to the china plates used for the creations, but it also references cockney rhyming slang. ‘Me old china’ is a cockney rhyming slang term for referring to a mate (my old mate) with mate rhyming with china plate! www.meoldchina.com.au
The Willow Story:
Based on a romantic Chinese legend ‘Willow’ plates depict a Chinese temple, bridge, distant island and a willow tree as the essential components of each piece. Also in the pattern are two birds in flight, their beaks kissing in mid-air, symbolizing the spirit of eternal love. The Willow plate contains the heart and soul of this lovely legend with a tragic ending.
There are many variations of the Willow story, but this version is my personal favourite;
Long ago, in the days when China was ruled by emperors, a Chinese mandarin lived in the magnificent pagoda under the branches of the apple tree, over which droops the famous willow tree and in front of which is seen the graceful lines of the fence. The wealthy mandarin had a beautiful daughter named Hong Shee who had fallen in love with her father's humble secretary, a man named Chang. This made her father cruel with anger, he dismissed the young man and built a high fence around his house to keep the lovers apart, and imprisoned his daughter in the little house just visible on the left of the temple. One day she escaped & the two lovers raced over the bridge pursued by her father to a waiting boat. They reached the boat, escaped and sailed away to a distant island which can be seen on the left of the plate, where they took refuge in the little wooden house. However, the mandarin father pursued and caught the lovers and was about to have them killed when the gods took pity on them and transformed them into a pair of doves. The birds are seen gazing into each others eye’s and the spirits of the two lovers live on to this day.
