CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND JEWELLERY

Craig McIntosh

From 2011

Party popper brooch $530
sterling silver, copper, paint
Gun pendant 3/10 $620
sterling silver, urethane, waxed cord, paint

From 2010

"This body of work continues my exploration of the idea of jewellery as a memento. These mementos are fleeting moments. The snapped end of a plastic spoon dropped on a pavement, a broken lighter washed up on the beach, other unidentifiable knobs and lumps and shards of plastic or glass.

Nothing is irreplaceable.
'Things' are seductive when new. Glossy, sharp edged, crisp. When they are old we tend to buy new things rather than considering repair. We throw out the old 'things' with little thought for where they might end up.

An object such as a plastic cigarette lighter usually has no sentiment attached to it. A smoker will use that lighter every day, more than once a day. The lighter will always be on hand, an intimate part of the paraphernalia of that now unfashionable and unhealthy pleasure. An experienced smoker can locate their lighter and light a cigarette without even thinking about it. The lighter will become an extension of their body. Yet when the lighter fluid is gone the smoker will discard the lighter with very little thought and buy a new one. What was once vital is now irrelevant." Craig McIntosh, 2010