gillian batcher’s unhinged

Canadian jewelry designer Gillian Batcher’s trip to Turkey was…well…full of surprises. Near disaster works for the young artist - the ring below, which won an award for technical achievement, was inspired by her less than stellar travels.

Unhinged: sterling silver, citrine, ribbon, and partially removed 18K gold plating

Unhinged - open

Unhinged is a piece about my experiences in Turkey while on vacation. Amidst great beauty I experienced many disasters as a lone traveler. At one point I felt like I was hanging on by a thread and if one more thing went wrong I would fall apart. Unhinged is the manifestation of that feeling. The shape is influenced by Turkish architecture and held together with a ribbon, but pull that cord and the entire piece opens up to reveal a jewel inside.

Batcher is fearless about mixing precious with non precious materials. Her pouch series explores the concept of what makes jewelry precious. The pieces are made of sterling silver, 14k gold, plastic and fimo - but wait a minute, in my world fimo is a precious material!

Giant Carrot Pouch

plastic, fimo, sterling silver