CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
NEW BRITISH GRADUATES

‘Card Pocket’ brooch in patinated silver and paint

IONA McCUAIG

When I was ten years old, my dad returned home from work with a plastic bag full of scraps of paper. He had been working in an old house in Grangemouth and had found, the bag, hidden in a wall. Putting the scraps of paper together I realised they were letters, written by a solider living in Glasgow during World War Two and these letters were for his parents, informing them of his welfare. Also in the bag was a regiment newsletter, envelopes and wartime leaflets. Each piece of my jewellery becomes an imagined object inspired by a snippet of text from the letters and attempts to recapture a moment in the lives of those living in such uncertain times.

After obtaining a First Class Honors in Silversmithing and Jewellery in the Summer of 2008, I am now the artist in residence at Friends’ School in Saffron Walden. I will use this opportunity to research the school's three hundred year old history providing fresh inspiration for more stories to come to life through my jewellery.

Biographical Details