After receiving a degree in architecture in 2000, Jennaca Leigh Davies worked as an architect while she went back to school to complete her MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing. The artist graduated in 2007 and her designs combine a fascination with the geometry of nature and a love of architectural details. Materials include Tyvek, laser cut paper and enameled copper. I find it endlessly interesting to watch how she translates similar designs into each of the materials she uses.
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Rings, Tyvek
Bracelet, laser cut paper
Pendants, enameled copper, sterling silver chain
Rings, Tyvek, sterling silver
Paper Study II
Pendants,enameled copper, sterling silver chain
Spiral Earrings, laser cut paper, sterling silver
“The work I make is meant to be worn, but I also intend for it to be an interesting object when off the body. I think of my jewelry as small sculptures or miniature architecture, and the body, as my canvas.” Jennaca Leigh Davies
It is difficult to pin down a description for Bèatrice Coron - book artist, paper cutter, conceptual artist, sculptor and inventor are all words that come to mind. Coron’s work spans micro and macro as she invents a situation, a city, or a world through her meticulous silhouette paper cuttings.
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Invisible Cities, cut Tyvek, 9 yards long (click image to see it large)
The scale of the paper cuttings (she uses Tyvek for its durability) is almost impossible to capture in pictures – you really have to see them in person or look closely at the many detail pictures on her website of the many different parts of each cutting. The work is stunning not just because of the intricacy of the cuts, but the ideas and stories that she develops through these silhouettes.
Invisible Cities, detail (click image to learn more about this papercutting)
“My “Invisible Cities” are three nine-yard long papercuttings completed in 2008. I cut the three layers together, then separately. While the skylines are similar, the papercuttings show different versions of a world in transition. The “whole nine yards” format requires viewers to discover the territories as in an atlas, where every place is connected.” Bèatrice Coron
Heavens , cut Tyvek
(part of an installation titled “Hells and Heavens” – see more about this piece below)
“My silhouettes are a language I have developed over the years; my point of view is both detailed and monumental. Cutting from a single piece of material, the profusion of individual stories creates a coherent universe.” Bèatrice Coron
Heavens,detail
“In my graphic style, windows are used not to see out but in, placing the spectator in an outsider/insider situation. Shadows, reminiscent of film noir and voyeurism, leaves room for multiple interpretations.” Bèatrice Coron
This 2 minute video was shot by the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), where Coron’s “Heavens and Hells” is part of the exhibition “Slash: Paper Under the Knife” (until April 4, 2010). She cut the piece during a three-week residency at the museum last year and in the video she is shown cutting part of the Tyvek installation as she talks about the meaning behind the work. There is also a mind boggling time-lapse sequence of the work. More about “Heavens and Hells” here.
In late 2006 I wrote about Carol-lynn Swol’s Tyvek in this post and today I happened upon it again while researching another artist. Her work still makes my heart flutter so let’s take a second look.
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Interruption Bracelet, dyed and cut Tyvek, sterling silver
Swol has a passion for manipulating materials and she has done a masterful job transforming Tyvek, the tough-to-tear plastic used to make shipping envelopes and building wraps, into jewelry with an organic aesthetic. She dyes, cuts, stacks, swirls, heats and shapes this durable material, taking it from boring to breathtaking. Tyvek is as thin as paper, adaptable and resilient – characteristics that leave room for endless possibilities. More from Swol’s collection here.
I’m fascinated with Tyvek, a non woven, synthetic material known mostly for house wrap, priority mail envelopes and more recently, jewelry. Now Stockholm designer Mia Cullen takes it one step further, using the material to create unique textiles.
Cullen’s curtain ‘Flake’, pictured here, is made up of star shaped pieces of Tyvek that interlock to form a textile. Origami-ish, yes? I want to play!
Many mixed media/fiber artists are experimenting with the material. A quick search uncovered this interesting Tyvek experiment.
