Emily Christiana Bryne

I have chosen Emily as one of my designers of choice because she has an interesting approach to her subject matters, which she addresses through the use of narrative jewellery. The main contextual basis for her work is the notion of what may be considered as jewellery and what jewellery is concerning the body.

According to Metcalf, one of the major aspects to contemplate when creating narrative jewellery is the title of the Jewellery item. This is vital as it will help guide others towards their narrative, while also helping them when establishing an understanding of the said work. This is especially important when the artist has chosen to use symbolism which is not familiar or known by their audience.

Figure 1: Bryne, E (2013:24) Green Grass Brooch

This has been one of the constants when it has come to Bryne's work; which is one of the reasons why I have chosen her as an artistic example when trying to establish academic parallels. In Bryne's work, she aims to engage with her audience; this report will therefore be featuring some of her work and explore how she has interpreted narrative jewellery. The picture in figure 1, is an example of her work trying to explore the grass being greener on the other side.

Listed below are the headings which I will be discussing her work under.

a. Interaction series

b. Hives series

Emily Christiana Bryne

I have chosen Emily as one of my designers of choice because she has an interesting approach to her subject matters, which she addresses through the use of narrative jewellery. The main contextual basis for her work is the notion of what may be considered as jewellery and what jewellery is concerning the body.

Listed below are the guiding questions which I will be discussing her work under.

1. Which Issues does she address in her work?
2. How does she deal with them?

                                 i.      Which materials has she used and why?

                               ii.       Which Techniques has she used?

                              iii.      What kind of Imagery and symbolism has she used?

3. How is her work similar to mine?

Conclusion

Chapter Two of the report was a collection of relevant artist which could influence and inform my Chapter 3 report. One of these artists and jewellery designers was Stutman. Her background in fine art has greatly influenced her interpretation of what contemporary narrative jewellery is, as she creates jewellery that has sculptural forms to them, yet using her jewellery skills in order to provoke her audience. What I most associated with in her work was her ability to use imagery to create jewellery which addressed female issues, while at the same time working with relevance techniques, materials and colour choice. 

Byrne, like Stutman also manages to draw out her artistic background and portrays it in her work through the use of found materials, concepts and challenging the notion of how jewellery can be worn. 

My other example is also an artist; however Erismann is a poet who like Byrne uses her craft to create both dialogue and engagement with their audience of choice. I can relate with these three artistic souls as narrative and pushing conventional methods in order to express ones self and expand as a creative is an important part to their work.

This chapter also included a section where traditional Xhosa beadwork was discussed, this was to help inform ,y own creation as it displayed some f the imagery which was relevant for umakoti.

Emily Christiana Byrne

I have chosen Emily as one of my designers of choice although she may not be using multi-disciplinary methods in her work; she does however has an interesting approach to her subject matters, which she addresses through the use of narrative jewelelry. In some of her work she tends to push the notion of what may be considered as jewellery and what jewellery is in relation to the body.

 Like my previous example, Barbara Stutman, she too has studied fine art to then study and train as a goldsmith, this influences her overall work to be more artwork based rather than traditional commercial jewellery. I can also draw another parallel between her and Cecília Erismann, whose work is also direct by dialogue and conversation. However since she uses jewellery to inform her narrative, her pieces come alive when they come in contact with the human body, hence the jewellery items maybe be like words which only become sentences when united to the body. 

Engagement ring, understanding connection. (2009)

The jewellery item designed by Bryne is one of her earlier experiments where she was trying to explore the concept of connection and ways in which she could depict it using jewellery. I have chosen the above picture as it embodies the concept of expressing a narrative using contemporary jewellery. As it focuses more on the narrative it is meant to depict to an audience.

What I have found to be interesting about this piece is how it allows for an actual physical connection to another person. She went even further with her exploration by including an actual microphone as part of the ring design. This would then enable a person's heartbeat to be heard when placed on their heart, which will be then transmitted through the heartbeat she has created.

I have found the design to have taken many elements and thoughts into consideration, not simply relying on the mind of the viewer to dissect the designer's meaning.

1. Which Issues does she address in her work?
2. How does she deal with them?

                                 i.      Which materials has she used and why?

                               ii.       Which Techniques has she used?

                              iii.      What kind of Imagery and symbolism has she used?

3. How is her work similar to mine?

The Hives Series

In this series, Byrne, tends to work with various materials, sometimes using conventional jewellery materials, while other at times she may use unconventional materials such as food and actual flora. Whichever the case may be, she places a lot of consideration when selecting the various materials she works with in relation to her overall design piece.

Figure: 1 Byrne EC. (2014:18). Hives: Lip Swell, 2012

 The Hives picture is part of a series she had created in 2012, while trying to investigate how to convey a narrative concerning the human body; in this instance the way it would respond to external stimulus such as allergies. She has managed to form a visual depiction of a body’s response towards and allergic reaction. She has been able to suggest her allergic narrative through the use of her material choice which is a hexagonal mesh, which she had adjusted in order to silhouette the facial features of the modle (Bryne, (2014:18).

This series of narrative jewellery is very personal to her as she has been able to draw from her personal allergy to bees and thus use that to help create what would express the feelings of captivity she feels when faced with this situation. She has been very tactful with this piece even with the body placement selection so as to express the body’s reaction while also trying to give the viewer the idea that it could be regarded as neckpiece.

Precious materials

 Personally, I was drawn to the piece of jewellery in the picture below as it not only pushed the ‘what is jewellery?’ notion, but did however also challenge the perceptions of people. This item of jewellery made seemed to capture in essence what I would like to strive towards when trying to create a dialogue or narrative, it would stick and make people look.

Figure 31 Byrne EC. (2014:12). Precious Material (Performance Art Still), 2009

She has once again been purposeful when selecting her narrative materials to create her jewellery; she has used sterling silver, pearls, gemstones and even hamburgers. In this piece of jewellery which she has named “Precious

Material”, she has tried to force the viewer to reflect on their personal outlook when it comes to what they regard as precious.  She has thus decided to use a burger in order to spark a conversation on what is precious, since the cow (the burger meat) is considered to ‘precious’ in India it would provide a contrast to how it would be viewed in America, which is one of the number one fast food countries. Taking into account that these countries are oceans apart, with contrasting values, way of life and traditions, the material choice is relevant in wanting to question ‘why ‘do we regard what we believe is precious as precious.

Interaction Series

I have chosen to include this series which address interaction, as it exemplifies how narrative jewellery may be literally interpreted from an out of the box perspective. In her ‘Wear: Interaction Series’, she has explored the visual representation of the words friendship, family and love, which may be given to a person in the form of jewellery.

Figure:1 Byrne EC. (2014:39). Interaction: Necklace. (Hug), 2013

In her pieces she has focused more on the weaver and how they will be able to retain the emotions the jewellery is meant to express when the giver is not physically around. She has therefore tried to explore in a narrative form how these emotions could be represented more visually rather than just symbolically. This is what she tried to express with her Interaction Necklace, which appears as though this figure is giving the wearer an actual hug; as with the Interaction Ring, which is meant to represent a silent hand embrace. (Bryne, E, 2014)

Figure Byrne EC. (2014:40). Interaction: Ring (Promise), 2013.

What I particularly appreciate with this series is the thought process behind it and the expansion of the feelings which are expressed. I feel that she has been able to us the visual to embody her narrative in a memorable way, without it being to traditional in terms of jewellery standards. That although taking a literal interpretation, it is still however an item which allows one to feel nostalgic and allows the giver, wearer and audience a chance to think and evaluate, this would stimulate conversation.

Melted Promise

There are many works which Emily has done, however I chose this Melting promise lard ring because I was attracted to the symbolism behind it. She created an engagement ring which was more based on the symbolism rather than the actual beauty of the ring; she was able to achieve bringing her message forth as an audience is able to grasp the concept of love and marriage being an ever changing and it being unstable.

Figure Byrne EC. (2014:11). Melted Promise, lard ring 2010.

She used lard as the material of choice as the body heat would cause the ring to melt when it placed on the body for a specific amount of time. It is not only just an example of just how important the symbol one uses when designing or manufacturing a narrative piece of jewellery is, but also shows the importance of concept consideration when choosing materials.

Emily Christiana Bryne

In her work, Bryne's main aim is to use her narrative jewellery as a means to engage with the wearer and her audience.

Engagement ring, understanding connection. (2009)

The jewellery item designed by Bryne is one of her earlier experiments where she was trying to explore the concept of connection and ways in which she could depict it using jewellery. I have chosen the above picture as it embodies the concept of expressing a narrative using contemporary jewellery. As it focuses more on the narrative it is meant to depict to an audience.

What I have found to be interesting about this piece is how it allows for an actual physical connection to another person. She went even further with her exploration by including an actual microphone as part of the ring design. This would then enable a person's heartbeat to be heard when placed on their heart, which will be then transmitted through the heartbeat she has created.

I have found the design to have taken many elements and thoughts into consideration, not simply relying on the mind of the viewer to dissect the designer's meaning.

1. Which Issues does she address in her work?
2. How does she deal with them?

                                 i.            Which materials has she used and why?

                               ii.            Which Techniques has she used?

                              iii.            What kind of Imagery and symbolism has she used?

• How is her work similar to mine?