Jewellery designer Jordan Askill brings together the softest and simplest motifs to create jewellery that is not only beautifully delicate, but at the same time reminds you of the sort of things as a child you wished you had. His designs seem like day dreams on long journeys, devised while staring out the window but now realised here in luxurious materials. This season is the third instalment from the Australasian born designer, and for Spring Summer 12 he has focused on the amethyst as his starting point. Working with both hand carving and digital techniques he has managed to realise a series of ornate pieces which resonate through with an other worldly feel.
Bracelets consisting of a series of flying swallows are carved out of crystal and highlighted with silver. The swallows appear through a number of the pieces, applied to clasps, cuffs and rings. Other dreamlike animals including panthers and horses also feature on a number of the delicate yet statement pieces. The fantasy element occurs again in the form of a flying unicorn which is set onto a necklace with acid blue amethyst beads. A stand out piece was the heart shaped amethyst hanging delicately from a fine silver chain, featuring a three-dimensional swallow emerging from the centre.
Dazed Digital: What inspired this collection?
Jordan Askill: It was all about this deity, this spiritual feeling. I worked with a mining company called GEMFIELDS that do fair trade stones and they have an amethyst mine so I was working with all their raw materials. I was looking at taxidermy swallows that I had 3D scanned. I then worked with GEMFIELDS in having the amethyst carved and cut into the swallow motifs, which I replicated in lots of different forms.
DD: What inspired you to use ethical materials?
Jordan Askill: It just makes sense to me and makes me feel that I am doing something, that is at least in part, good. It makes it seem worthwhile in a way, and I hope that in some way we are helping a positive cause. I really just want to be a bit more conscious of that in my own practice so that others can see it is possible, without applying too many preconceptions.
DD: Do you have someone in mind that you are producing pieces for?
Jordan Askill: Not really, it is more about creating pieces that fit into this idea of a spiritual world that I am working with. I also just like to make rings and jewellery that all my friends can wear. That's actually why I do the accessory pieces, so that there is something that is accessible.
DD: What about the more sculptural pieces?
Jordan Askill: They are really inspired by my grandmother, or people from that era, like Elizabeth Taylor. I always loved the ornaments that she had around the house, and that she wore herself. It seemed like an incredibly elegant time that she grew up in and that has always really intrigued me.
