What is Contemporary Jewellery?

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Contemporary jewellery is a term that is somewhat difficult to furnish with a concrete definition. It is a slippery concept; Contemporary jewellery is often but not always wearable, is sometimes but not always made with precious materials and may or may not be constructed by hand using traditional bench jewellers skills. Some commentators suggest that contemporary jewellery had its origins in the workshops of Arts and Crafts movement in the early 1900’s (Lignel 2006), and progressed to the art based modernist jewellery movements of the 1960s (Ewington 2013). The 1980’s saw jewellers questioning the notion of preciousness and wearability and many at the turn of the century had begun to see the potential for their art form to function as a platform for social discussion and comment. Currently the term Contemporary jewellery is most often used to describe a broad category of art or design based jewellery that is produced in the here and now, that references the body, and that is a vehicle through which the maker expresses their ideas about themselves, their art form, and the time in which they live (Lignel 2006).

Bibliography

Ewington, Julie. 2013. “Now and Then: Thinking about the Contemporary in Art and Jewellery.” In Contemporary Jewellery in Perspective, by Damian Skinner, pp 221-229. New York: Lark Books.

Lignel, Benjamin. 2006. “On Defining Contemporary Jewellery.” Metalsmith, Volume 26, Issue 3: pp14-15.