Victoria McIntosh
Catching up on comments from October wearer:
Well, being an occasional keen pastrycook I instantly recognized the genesis of the ‘boat’ form that encases the ‘eye’. Must confess it put me off a bit initially. ‘Oh, it looks like an eye like that – do you have to wear it horizontally?’ asked one family member. But I quiet like it like that. Its weight mean it’s probably best worn on something substantial – a coat/jacket, rather than a blouse or sweater of any fine material. It did make substantial holes in a fine cotton shirt. But then, I was to suggest ‘pins’ at the back be more sturdy but this cannot be – unless kept in jackets etc. Overall I think it elegant and enjoyed wearing it. It certainly drew ample compliments.
Kate Barton
Latest comment from Shelley:
For me this brooch harked back to unbundled curiosity and imagination of childhood… don’t play with matches….
The piece as a pleasure to wear. I had great fun with my work colleagues free associating –
– This plump cute structure
– A thatched roof cottage
– A book shelf with books starting to tumble out.
– A ginger bread house
– Noah’s ark
– Moon skirt
– Mouse trap
Very successful piece, inciting enjoyment and loosening up of thought, interaction and conversation,
Thanks
S
Ross Malcolm “Colourpop” 2011
Stg.silver,nylon,plastic
Latest comments from Linda
What a treat to have had the pleasure of wearing this ‘fun’ Ross Malcolm creation this past 4 weeks. It seemed to suit lots of what I wore and just any occasion…. I loved the way this gorgeous ‘thingy’ rearranged itself, each time I wore it. It’s self-movement appealed to me & so it did to others – the art students I teach thought it the ‘best-yet’ and were intrigued to learn that it was simply the plastic from shampoo bottles – originally. This brought about intriguing conversations – even ideas for equally creative uses for ‘defunct’ cosmetic plastics!
Many asked :
– Where did you get this?
– How does it work?
– What a neat idea!
– It reminds me of children’s birthday party food.
A pleasure to wear. Thank you Ross.
Linda
Cath Dearsley "Shake your tail feather"
Wearer comment from Derrick:
My second Brooch and already I have slipped from ardent wearer to forgetful conformist by omission. On it’s one and only outing this piece did indeed shake it’s tail feather, glitzing up what was otherwise a stifled yawn of an outfit. I apologise to Cath, this sparkly little number deserved greater exposure and would have made more of an impression both on my dinner mates and myself had I not worn it against a black, matt jacket that was discarded to a rack soon after entering the establishment. This is a classy brooch. It’s simple, recognisable shape and bedazzled finish construe a feeling of glitz and glamour. I would happily pin it tot he lapel of a tuxedo jacket or wear it to a wedding. Perhaps it would become the little black dress of my brooch collection?
Nutcracker, 2011
wood, copper, brass, felt
Latest comments from wearer Eloise (March 2012)
I was really looking forward to the challenges of wearing this piece. For those of you who have not seen this one in the round it does not have a traditional brooch back, but in fact has a section of the brooch that unwinds so that the piece can be worn through a button whole on a shirt, cardigan or jacket, basically wherever you find a suitable whole in your clothing (a large weave scarf perhaps). Luckily I had some summer shirts etc so this piece got many outings. This felt like one of the more sculptural pieces that I have worn so far in BOM, probably because of the way it sat you could see boths sides of the brooch. The combination of wood and brass I found very complimentary. This piece got a lot of attention but nothing more than comments about how interesting or great it looked. I have a fondness for wood in jewellery as it seems to be so rarely used, let alone used well – this piece is definitely a success on those fronts. Like others I’m sure, I have great child hood memories associated with wooden objects, whether baking with family (wooden spoons and spatulas), or in the shed making something with my paternal grandfather. We humans do like to reminisce, thanks Sarah!
& Sarah’s response:
Gesture 2011
Newsprint, mixed media, silver, paint
80 x 75 x 15mm
Latest comment by Shelly Norton (22.9.11):
Light and luscious, a stretched out butter curl. Perhaps the big banana skin thrown landing in the manner of a Max Gimblett roundly painted circle. I really enjoyed wearing this piece – floating on its elegant sparse frame. A colleague commented on the brooch said she enjoyed the colours especially the red and the way it felt unfinished… she had a shirt she loved – superbly tailored with the bottom edge unhemmed – she felt it left room for the person wearing it to make it their own. Room to play, to be yourself is a generous trait is a piece.
Mia Straka
PVC tape, silk thread, brass, paint
Latest comment from wearer Eloise Sept/October 2011:
I found this brooch surprisingly easy to ear despite its box like nature. I did notice it, feel it while wearing it, but it seems to have survived being bumped & brushed. It was slightly disconcerting to discover the weaving/netting moved. I always thought I was potentially stretching or re-arranging it. Most comments I received likened the brooch to a cage, one person thought a washing/clothes basket! Often got suggesting that something should be inside the case, one or two offers to make something to put inside. These functional readings of the brooch I found curious. I assume the weaving/netting appearance lent the piece to these functional interpretations, rather than people seeing it as purely sculptural or decorative – which is more common for brooches. My only suggestion in terms of construction is possibly a couple of bars joining the front corners top & bottom. (see picture)
As I had a couple of people try and squeeze this piece from the top & bottom & the bars do move a little. This may of course affect the ability to weave the thread and tape around the structure.
Ilse-Marie Erl
Latest comment from Anna Miles:
Brooch No. 3
This brooch I felt I knew well but didn’t have enough time to really appreciate. I own an amber version of this brooch that Marie gave me a long time ago. The amber brooch which like the newer red one is made of car headlight plastic came from a series of work called Bright lights and Concrete which is interesting for Marie’s inclusion of a palette of urban materials. By choosing these materials she was in some ways opposing herself to the conventions of the ‘Bone Stone Shell’ tradition of local jewellery. I guess an earlier challenge to this convention of gathering non-precious organic materials came from one of those ‘Bone Stone Shell’ insiders, Warwick Freeman, who had already begun to disassemble the tradition in his 1980s neckpiece that includes discs of pink and lime Perspex.
My understanding is that Marie made a series of geometric formed brooches employing car headlight set in silver for an exhibition of jewellery for and about men at Fingers. (I thought this was MAN, 2003, which also included Alan Preston’s snake-like, sperm-like mother of pearl brooches, but think I am mistaken). There was a desire on Marie’s part at least to make jewels that would be worn by men, however after the event she felt that the only men who bought or wore these jewels were men who were highly initiated to the wearing of contemporary New Zealand jewellery, so in some senses regarded the result as a failure.
Flash forward 8 years and Marie is undertaking Masters study at Unitec and in the course of her contemplations of the memorial role of jewellery and theories of the counter monument, she becomes involved in making her own counter monument in Oakley Creek, a memorial to the Waterview homes destroyed to make way for a motorway extension. Ironically Marie uses a fragment of car, the vehicle that has led to the motorway, to memorialise each home destroyed by its path. The red brooch I was now wearing was made at the same time as Marie implanted the same size cores of car headlight plastic in trees in Oakley Creek. I found this interesting and started wearing my amber brooch again at this time, as it seemed to have now acquired a whole new meaning. Like the red brooch included in Brooch of the month, the amber brooch was now connected to the story of a motorway extension that has cut through and caused the demolition of a neighbourhood. In another twist, Marie had obtained the headlight plastic for her Waterview Counter memorial from a West Auckland car wrecker in return for one of her brooches. She has a photo of the guy wearing his brooch. In a sense she has achieved something she set out to when she first made these works for Fingers, she has made a jewel for a man who is not a contemporary New Zealand jewellery aficionado.
Flora’s jewel had made me more scrupulous in my attention to Marie’s and I became preoccupied with its formal features, in particular the silver rim that the headlight plastic is set in. In this case the rim project quite substantially and casts a shadow on the red plastic contained within. I wondered if the design would be better if the silver rim was flush with the plastic as the polished concrete brooches Marie has made are. I remain fascinated by the rigorous geometry of Marie’s work. In the context of this story of jewels once intended for men that are now associated with homes lost to make way for a motorway, this brooch makes you wonder about the ways a formal vocabulary associated with ‘triangle, circle square’ Bauhaus has proved extremely mobile.
Tatjana Panyoczki "Playing with fire (wood)"
Last comment by wearer Liz – October 2011
October 2011
This was such a great brooch to wear, light and beautifully finished. It worked well on jackets and ..
I know it’s a piece of wood from the wood pile – but it has lovely textural characteristics – somewhere between a piece of fence and a piano leg.
I didn’t get many comments on it as I think it just has a “rightness” about it that doesn’t draw comments. It sits there in a non-spectacular way but adds to what-ever it is beign worn on.
Liz S
Latest Comments by wearer Linda
Dear Renee,
Your beautifully constructed floral creation must be from what you must have created –“A Spring Collection”… for being just the second brooch in my wearable calendar just coincided with the first spring flowers – namely freesias and daffodils. My visual art students @ school awaited my 1st wearing of it with much anticipation, as I had alluded to the fact that it was somewhat large and of a colour I love in nature, but choose to never wear!… I teach a great many students & without exception, they all immediately guessed YELLOW which I prefer to call names like ‘buttercup’, ‘sunflower’, ’impressionist gold’ & so on._____________ They loved it, marveled at its construction (as I have) & was the source of lively debate. My colleagues @ school are also following the wearing of ‘the brooches’ with much interest… sadly for them, they are far too conservative to enjoy this month’s art piece.
I next wore it to the main restaurant of the retirement village my parents reside at & they all, without exception, loved the familiarity of the fabric (from bygone times) & the story of my wearing it.
For myself it has been a novelty, a slight test of courage – in that, even though I think I am quite out there, perhaps not quite enough for its own magnificence. —–
Thank you,
Kindest regards,
Linda
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Prior comments: Liz Sharek
Renee Bevan (maker) Eye Catch (image) Liz Sharek (wearer)
Renee and Liz @ Eye Catch
Nadene Carr
Latest comments (August2011)
Looks fresh & marine focused.
Looks like an octopus surfacing
Very unwearble
A bit of nonsense
Great piece when dressed up for the races!
Flamboyant!
Lynsay Raine
‘Foundations’ Brass, steel wire, varnish
Latest comment by Hamish (journal)
22-08-11
About the time of the last swap, Ngila, who is doing the costume designs for Mr Pip, fell at work and broke her elbow. With that and the Art Fair this brooch languished in its box.
The X-rays of Ngila’s pinned and plated elbow show a structure very like it.
It stayed in its box.
Late one night Ngila rang to say she was arriving home a day early from location.
When her taxi arrived, I rushed downstairs to help her in.
I knocked the brooch box off my desk.
The brooch demanded to be worn.
It was.
It met Ngila’s elbow and it seemed a circle was happily completed.
