NOW & THEN
Antique meets Contemporary

‘Propeller’ – brooch with display stand in anodised aluminium and altered found objects

Lindsey Mann

My childhood was spent with a father obsessed with anything mechanical. From mending household gadgetry to tinkering with tractors, he’d have a go. Fixing them was always secondary to finding out how they worked. His shed was, and still is, like a hospital ward for all things mechanical or motorised and nothing was ever thrown away as “you never know when it might come in handy”. Screws, nuts and bolts, ball bearings, cogs, instruction manuals and bits and bobs from dismantled contraptions crept into the house, and were mingled amongst our everyday belongings. I never did and probably never will understand what half the things do or what they are used for, but I can’t help but think that they have had an influence on the things I make now.

Print and colour are fundamental to my work. I use anodised aluminium and a number of colouring techniques to create a backdrop for each collaged piece of jewellery. Combining my patterned aluminium with precious metals and found materials I work intuitively, placing and shifting elements of a piece until the composition comes together and it all makes sense. By incorporating found and altered objects alongside my nonsensical mechanical inventions I hope to perhaps trigger a vague memory for the viewer by creating both familiar and yet foreign associations.

Biographical Details