This was entry for the Cheongju Craft Biennial in Korea:

suffice it to say I did not win ;(

The theme for the competition was: (you can skip this part if you want.. a little long winded!)

The theme for the 2009 Biennale, Outside the Box, proposes that craft be considered or approached as a composite whole, rather than as a series of fragmentary and contending disciplines. To think outside the box, as the phrase goes in the West, is to transcend spurious divisions through the human faculty of imagination. In newly-merged artistic and managerial discourses, ‘outside the box’ is where the indispensably ‘innovative’ is to be found. But it is also where a state of integration becomes attainable; where meetings become possible. As what is devised as a necessary means to an end, craft and innovation have ever been one and the same. By the same definition craft is integration; with nature, with others, with its collective self. It therefore has the power to unite and represent all human values, in the here and now. It is one of the chief absurdities of our times that the world should be facing unprecedented environmental, economic and humanitarian crises and at the same time find itself inundated with products and consumables.The position in relation to crafts, and the fate of crafts, is one essential aspect of this paradox. Contemporary attitudes to material culture: the idea of the self as project the creation of the authentic individual the arbitrariness of meaning; these have proceeded from the beginnings of modern consumerism in the eighteenth century, and from the development of Romanticism as an intellectual and emotional response.¹ But to what vision of mankind does this proliferation of the inherently valueless testify in our information and technology age.

My entry:

In this world where diamonds and pearls are stripped from nature to adorn humans as priceless baubles; it is time to seek out treasures derived from renewable resources such as natural fibres like silk and wool. It is time to reconsider what is precious and priceless.

This fine silver ring (.999FS hallmark) with its hand- sculpted and polished finish was designed to enhance and reflect the natural beauty and luster of this hand felted “pearl”; making this “pearl” as precious as any of its ocean counterparts.

This unique ring was inspired by the United Nations declaration that 2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibres.

Since making this ring, I have been working on a series of pieces for a new line.

note: the size and colour of the pearls can be custom ordered. I will be posting these on etsy in the not do distant future.

Here is a preview: