Re-Worked

Compact by Nicola Reed

Re-Worked

A recent success in my own work has come via a collaboration between myself and my good friend, and talented jeweller (also a graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone 2010), Nicola Reed. Nicola and I, having cited one another as inspiration/competition (!) throughout our final year, (as we both employed techniques from one anothers disciplines in creating our final collections), applied to Craft Makers Award: Dundee with our 'Re-Worked' brief:

‘Re-worked’, is a collaboration between Sara Nevay and Nicola Reed, First Class Honours graduates of Duncan of Jordanstone, Textile Design and Jewellery and Metal Design respectively. We plan to examine the process of reworked and reused vintage materials and how the destructive process of rusting, used in our case as an organic ‘print’ and deconstructive element, can highlight the idea of preciousness in modern materials. We aim to combine disciplines which will, as we adapt to working independently of University, arm us with further knowledge and skills as each of us plan to enlist techniques and materials traditionally associated with the other’s specialism; we each touched upon this in our final year projects which were shown at the Duncan of Jordanstone Degree Show this May. We plan, too, to explore the process of working between two cities, Sara based in Dundee and Nicola, Inverness, strengthening the craft links Dundee has with its graduates. The project aims to work constructively with the nature of our chosen materials and processes, (rusting being a lengthy process and our working in separate studios for the most part), allowing us to explore in depth, the growth of our project and chart our own progress as new designers chronologically. The project will take place by posting designs, as well as swapping reworked materials, at different stages to see how they can be incorporated effectively into designs and used for their mark-making potential. Posting will act as markers in time of the decaying process, allow for regular revision of our work and growth of our designs and ideas as they are realised, and test the strength of our reworked samples as they are exposed to our design processes. We hope to learn much through adapting to circumstance and working further with our materials as they change in each other’s hands. We plan, too, to collaborate and document the project stage by stage, in an online blog where we can share ideas in a more immediate platform and in a sense ‘work together’ whilst living in separate cities.

http://re-workedproject.blogspot.com/

We were both elated to recieve support from the Craft Makers Award: Dundee, as both a boost in confidence and an opportunity to push the project further than we could have ourselves in terms of finance and backing.