Featured Artist: Lucy Folk

Lucy Folk is one of the original members of the Pieces of Eight workshop. We all adore her boundless energy and the playful nature of her work. Most recently, the workshop has seen a pasta explosion as she worked towards her newest range, Pasta.

This collection of sterling silver jewellery will be exhibited in the Pieces of Eight window from Tues April 28th to Sat May 23rd (visible 24hrs a day). The entire collection is available on order, with most pieces on display and ready to be worn! To read more, check our website.

Lucy's inspiration/pin board in her studio

An interview with Lucy Folk for Pieces of Eight, April 09

1. What was the driving force behind the new Pasta collection?

Well as the days and nights get colder, I find I turn to comfort food such as Pasta to warm my belly and put a smile on my face. What better way to celebrate the cooler months than with a new collection of jewellery cast directly from rigatoni, farfalle and silver wire, fashioned into spaghetti rings and bangles?



2. What is it about making jewellery that you find most rewarding?

I think it would have to be being able to wear my own creations and create new pieces to add to my collection! Plus the joy of seeing people who appreciate my work for its humour and fellow foodies who wear it with pride.

Rigatoni cufflinks:
sterling silver, $275

3. Who / what do you currently find inspiring?

I find so much inspires me but it is usually very indirect. Perhaps a colour or a texture, an amazing meal, all of the creative folk in Melbourne that are doing brilliant things… the list goes on.

Farfalle rings: sterling and
oxidised sterling silver, $365 ea

4. You travel quite frequently. What is your current favourite destination and why?

That is a tricky one, aaahhhh! New York 'cause it is so much fun and the galleries are amazing, Paris is so charming, anything by the beach cause that is when you totally switch off… I don’t know!

Farfalle and ruby necklace,
Oxidised sterling silver, $455

5. If you could work with any artist / designer, who would it be?

There are so many that would be fantastic, perhaps Martin Margiela, Victoire de Castellane, Jeff Koons and so on!

The gorgeous Victoire de Castellane wearing her designs for Dior

6. Without any restrictions, what would be your dream collection (to create)?

Something totally crazy using seriously good materials and stones. I haven’t explored dessert so maybe this could be it. Crystal cluster rings that represent jelly, maybe even carving semi precious stones into pendants and rings...

Rigatoni bangle with 18ct gold plating, $275

7. What’s next for Lucy Folk?

Who knows… more travel, collections, hopefully leading into collaborations. Having lots of fun doing it is very important!

Spaghetti rings: oxidised sterling silver with rubies, $285 ea,
plain (text only, no rubies) and sold in a set of three, $200

8. Share a favourite recipe with us:

Delicious Cabbage Salad
Shave cabbage, red and white, finely chop red onion, chili, lemon zest, mint, lemon juice, feta (Dodoni), good olive oil. Yum!

Rigatoni necklace, sterling silver, $420

9. What websites / blogs do you enjoy visiting?

Bureau of Meteorology, Webjet, Luxury Culture, Gourmet Traveller, JC Report, Last FM

Lucy hammering the text
into her Rigatoni bangles

Who's that wearing a Lucy Folk 'Tutte Farfalle' necklace?

When she was in Melbourne recently, singer Lilly Allen
was given one of Lucy's Farfalle necklaces
by Fuzzy on Video Hits. What a lucky girl!

Co-incidentally, she also received one of Craig Spark's 'Science of Luxury'
necklaces which she also wears in these photos.
Look out for new work from Craig coming to the gallery soon.

The Complete Compendium of Contemporary Jewellery 2008

It has finally arrived- The Compendium Finale of Contemporary Jewellers 2008, Vol. 1 and 2!

Published by the rather daring Darling Publications and hand bound, it weighs 13.55kg, is 2400 pages and profiles 1000 jeweller from around the world. It is the first of it's kind! The artists were invited to participate via nomination by their peers.

Launched this February at the Shmuck 09 International Trade Fair in Munich, Germany, all participating artists in Australia had to wait to receive their copy. While some of us had our copies slightly damaged in transit, it was still exciting to explore the heavy volumes, searching for friends and discovering new makers.

Pieces of Eight artists included are: Alida Cappelletta, Michelle Cangiano, Nina Ellis, Yuko Fujita, Lucy Folk, Djurdjica Kesic, Melanie Katsalidis, Elfrun Lach, Teresa Lane, Jimena Rios, Suzi Zutic.

Featured Artist: Steffi Kalina

Steffi Kalina is a talented Austrian jeweller based in Vienna. We first discovered her work when researching artists to invite for participation in our 'Baked Not Fried' exhibition in 2008. We fell in love with her finely crafted and very beautiful enamelled flower pieces. Currently Steffi is represented exclusively in Australia by Pieces of Eight. We asked her a few questions about her work and had her send some images of her studio for our blog. We hope you enjoy this insight into her practice.



1. What attracts you to enamelling?

Once you've studied and worked with the material a lot and get to know its properties well, its melting point and how it reacts, enamelling can be very relaxing work. You always follow the same steps; scrupulously cleaning the copper, applying the enamel powder, drying (I always use an old hair dryer), and finally tempering the metal. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the material changes and how the colours slowly appear.


2. What is the status of enamelling in contemporary jewellery practice, particularly in Europe?

It seems as though old techniques such as enamelling have gained in importance over the last years. I think that nowadays, when time is our most precious commodity, anything handmade is becoming more and more of a luxury. This is especially the case with enamelling, a process that requires a lot of time and skill.


3. If possible, can you discuss some of the ways in which your contemporaries employ enamel in their work?

Apart from my good friend Tabea Reulecke, whom you have already presented in the enamel exhibition [Baked not Fried], another artist and friend of mine, Danni Schwaag, also works with enamel a lot (www.dannischwaag.de). Hers is a very different, part experimental, part conceptual approach to the material, using techniques such as oxidation (when the white enamel turns green). Her necklaces and brooches of ivory-coloured enamel and mother-of-pearl are particularly beautiful.


4. Does your use of the floral motif relate to a history of flower details traditionally used by enamellists?

No, not really. When I created my first enamelled flower (a cherry blossom), I started out with the original in mind and abstracted the form slightly to make it work for me. Actually my inspiration is hardly ever an existing piece of jewellery but mostly comes from nature. When making a snowdrop for example, I first dissected and measured the real flower and then tried to make a metal piece of jewellery using its characteristics.


5. What is the significance of colour in your work?

Colour is a very important element in my work, especially in my floral jewellery. Though I have tried making the flowers out of pure silver without enamelling them, the result was disappointing, bland and banal. It is the colours and their combinations that bring my flowers to life.

Jewellery Topos at Galerie Marzee

Dougal Haslem
'The Elephant and the Umbrella', 2008
Sterling silver, collected object.
90 x 40 x 20mm


February 2009 saw an exhibition of RMIT post-graduate Gold and Silversmithing students exhibit at the prestigious Galerie Marzee in The Netherlands. There was a jewellery and also a holloware exhibition shown at the same time and organised by Prof. Robert Baines (co-ordinator of Post Grad studies, Gold and Silversmithing, RMIT Uni). To read the short essay written by Robert that accompanied the exhibition, scroll down past the images.


Included were several Pieces of Eight represented artists including Dougal Haslem, Elfrun Lach and Nina Oikawa. Also Katherine Brunacci whom you may remember was included in our My Pet Rock exhibition of last year.

Each work selected for exhibition has a very striking quality that refelects each artists very individual style.

For more info, link to http://www.marzee.nl/


Elfrun Lach
'Anulus Parvus', Ring 2008
Bamboo, coral, polymer clay
70 x 38 x 15 mm
Nina Oikawa
'Manmade Fossil with Play of Colour', Ring 2008
Sterling silver, resin, cellophane and nylon
80 x 30 x 30 mm

Katherine Alexandra Brunacci
'Oh! Pear', Pendant 2008
Silver, fine silver, enamel
650 x 200 x 70 mm

Exhibition installation at Galerie Marzee


Jewellery Topos
By Robert Baines



Jewellery is the bearer of cultural and historical meaning and memory. In particular it is concerned with the relations of those meanings with the personal and urban settings, acting as a way of defining or interpreting ‘topos’ (which means ‘of place’, Greek). The concern of this jewellery research is to recognise and explore the ways the jewellery artefact opens our engagement with, and understanding of the personal and external places we inhabit. Jewellery conveys settings of human identity and presence as well as external settings such as urban spaces and ‘topos’ takes on a broader significance as place itself becomes an expanded notion.

There are many places jewellers can ‘go’ but there are four broad topographical influences

1. Topos of remnant, reject industrial materials, found and collected residue materials and objects, remnant domestic and public detritus
2. Topos of private and personal place, intimate locations, human body, internal architectural spaces, domestic applications
3. Topos of public place, streetscapes, external spaces and community locations
4. Topos of historical and cultural locations, personal histories and poetries