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

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.

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.

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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?

The rope version

Figure 1: Ndongeni, S (2018). Suicide by Rope neckpiece.

For this version of the series, I had made several neckpieces which as stated were created from actual rope, which were then tried as a noose to be worn around the neck.

Figure 2: Ndongeni, S (2018). Suicide by Rope neckpiece.

In order to tie the poetry and the actual pieces, I had decided to use flowery image once again, as it would depict this young flower (a girl), which never got to bloom into the woman she was meant to become.

Figure3: Ndongeni, S. Suicide by rope type 2. 

In figure 2, I had decided to use red beads when making some of the items as these would also indicate the poured out blood.

Figure 4: Ndongeni, S. Suicide by rope type 3. 

The small purple figurines in figure 3 and 4 are meant to be representative of girls who were kidnapped or forced into marriage before turning 18 years, which is why I chose to use 18 headless figurines.  This concept is similar to that of Stutman, who had used crocheted female figurines to represent women. I also found that it would help create an irony of sorts, as Xhosa dolls/ figurines are usually given to females as charms rather than a representation of their death. 

Figure 5:: Ndongeni, S. Suicide by rope type 3, beaded elements.

The next phase

As I have been experimenting with Resin, there have been a few successes and q long list of failures, but can with pride report that there seems to be some kind of direction as to where this is all going and what are my limits are. 

This is a picture of one of the first steps I took in the next phase of experimenting and developing of the resin and fabric idea. I have made round circles of wire, which is the same thickness and height of the previous test piece I had conducted,

I have also decided to explore and see if the fabric idea would also work on a ring and is the drying process would be similar to that of the black ring I had previously loaded. 

After I had formed the ring and shaped my circle with the small mandrel, I went on to place plate behind a selected few from the circles shaped I had formed. 

I then went on to start with the resin mixture preparation for firstly the ring, and as you can see the blue strip, that is what will then go on to the ring. 

In the above picture, i was still trying to sort out the layout of the circles and to see if I had made the correct amount. 

Once soldering, sanding and polishing had been completed, I the went on to prep the shapes for resin, as some of the shapes had no backing plate, I added tape to act as the backing support for them. 

This is a picture of the link items after the resin had been poured and the fabric had been place; I am still waiting on the hardening of the resin to commence with the cleaning process. 

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