Andrea Körsgen & Ema Kelly: Jewellery and glass collaboration
New ‘Jewellery and Glass Collaboration’: Andrea Körsgen and Ema Kelly’s work is on show in Corning, New York, USA.
Following 2008/09’s special Town Hall Centrepiece exhibition, showing new collaborative work created between Centrepiece jewellers and glass artists from the West Midlands, two makers ventured out to apply with recently created pieces to participate in a major joint exhibition of glass artists from Germany and England.
The exhibition ‘SAME DIFFERENCE 09′ takes place at Cedar Arts Center in Corning, New York, running from the 9th of June through to 27th of June and includes 20 makers from Frauenau, Germany and 24 makers from Stourbridge and the wider Midlands area.
The exhibition has been organized to coincide with the 39th Annual Glass Society Conference to be held in June in Corning, which happens to be the most renowned centre for glass art in the US and consequently some exposure to major US buyers can be expected during that time.
Both Andrea Körsgen and Ema Kelly are very excited to be part of this prestigious show. Their contributing joint piece KORI MIZU (ICY WATER) is closely related to their current work and is standing out as the only jewellery item amongst the glass art presented. It is a striking bespoke necklace inspired by aspects of Japanese design, an asymmetrical arrangement of flowing shapes made of domed silver disks, interspersed with intricate glass cluster beads encapsulating a few tiny CZs, in turquoise green colours.
To combine glass and precious metals in a piece presents the makers with the challenge of planning the product well on different levels. For the jeweller this means finding solutions that avoid the application of heat (as needed for soldering) near the glass elements, as they would unfortunately get damaged. The makers need to work together on an aesthetically coherent design to bring out the qualities of the materials used, ensuring they work well with each other, creating a fine and dynamic balance. Then of course it is of great importance to consider how wearable and functionally sound the final piece would be.
Ema and Andrea have enjoyed creating something unique in silver and glass, they would say it is ‘ticking all the boxes’ and this very special piece, to be worn at exclusive occasions, is now available. Two sets of matching earrings have also been made to complement the necklace.
