- From eggs to sourdough starters, bath bubbles and fruit, students have used what is to hand for their creative responses to granulation, a complex goldsmithing technique
- Challenge brought together the State Collection of Antiquities and Glypothek, Munich with The Glasgow School of Art
- Project highlights innovative ways of teaching and learning, and presenting museum collections to a younger generation
Images: design by Jenny McElroy, Sarah Wilmott, Saipranathi Sreeram and Vhari McGovern
First year Silversmithing and Jewellery students at The Glasgow School of Art have continued to express their creativity during the Covid-19 lock down this time through an international collaboration. After working with the Queen’s House, Greenwich and National Museums of Scotland students have now got together with the acclaimed State Antique Collections and Glyptothek in Munich.
For this first international collaboration the students were challenged to recreate the complex goldsmithing technique of granulation using what was to hand at home during lock down and they certainly rose to the challenge!
The project started with Etruscan jewellery in the State Antique Collections and Glyptothek in Munich, including a pair of stunning disc earrings which demonstrate a use of the granulation technique and show the level of goldsmithing skills in the 6th century BC.
Images: Etruscan disc earring.
© Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek München
fotografiert von Renate Kühling
The students also had the chance to do some special distance learning with a leading Munich-based jewellery artist, Pura Ferreiro. Ferreiro, who teaches the traditional technique of granulation at the State college of Glass and Jewellery in Kaufbeuren-Neugablonz, gave the students an insight into this specialised and complex technique.
Images Jenny McElroy uses eggs in her response to the brief
and “The Lady of Ephesus“ (a roman copy from the National Archaeological Museum Naples).
Jenny McElroy created a new take on granulation using eggs. “I used eggs to create the iconic joined spherical shapes created by this technique,” says Jenny. “I found the similarities between the egg shells and skin very interesting, looking at their flaws, freckles and stretch marks. By placing the eggs directly onto the body, the granulation appears as a sort peculiar growth of the skin. “
“After discussion with Dr. Astrid Fendt, the co-founder of the project, I also took inspiration from the famous statue of the Ephesian Artemis,” she adds. “The similarities between the shape and placement of the eggs, and the numerous breasts on the piece gave an extra theme and direction for me to consider.”
“As a result I aimed to create an ethereal image using the eggs to symbolise her fertility, as well as my own interpretation of what a deity might look like with this strange unfamilliar skin.”
Images: broach created by Sarah Wilmott from soy wax, water, plastic tube, copper pipe and steel wire; a sour dough starter from which she took inspiration.
For Sarah Wilmott a sour dough starter was the initial inspiration. “I was inspired by the natural fermentation that occurs when flour and water is mixed and left to stand to produce a sourdough starter,” says Sarah. “As the yeast develops, pockets of gas rise and fall leaving a highly textured surface that resembles the fusion of spheres or granules of precious metals that make up the traditional granulation technique”
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“My intention was to produce a brooch that had a fluid form that changed whilst worn. The soy wax droplets are suspended inside the brooch and become buoyant allowing them to move freely within the confines of the plastic tube. The brooch can be worn in several orientations and as the wax droplets cluster together they appear to fuse and become a solid mass resembling the works of David Huycke.”
Sarah’s brooch was made using soy wax, water, plastic tube, copper pipe and steel wire.
Images: bubbles were the inspiration for Saipranathi Sreeram’s brooch
For Saipranathi Sreeram: Bubbles were her inspiration. “Bubbles are playful, beautiful delicate things,” says Saipranathi. “At twilight, looking at the sky through a window was like looking at the world from inside a bubble, and this was my inspiration.”
“The main object of my design was to create a a representation of the city inside a bubble,” she adds.
“Antiquity can be a great source of inspiration,” says Dr Florian Knauß, Director of the State Collection of
Antiquities and Glypothek. “Ludwig I, who started to build up his collections of ancient art two centuries ago understood this. Arts and crafts should take take inspiration from old masterpieces to achieve new highs.”
“A particularly exciting outcome of our collaboration with The Glasgow School of Art has been creating a new museum experience,” adds curator Dr Astrid Fendt. “We have been able to keep the collections alive during the forced closure of the actual museum occasion by the coronavirus lock down.”
“Not only did we enjoy international dialogue, but aroused curiosity about ancient culture and old techniques among young people by harnessing the power of digital channels. We were able to introduce the younger generation to our museum in a creative way,” she adds.
“The Granulation Challenge has been part of our innovative approach to delivering teaching and learning during the Covid-19 lock down,” says Silvia Weidenbach, Tutor in Silversmithing & Jewellery at the GSA.”We are using new digital teaching concepts in a playful way and have also been able to benefit from international exchange using digital technology.”
“For our students, who have not had access to workshops, it has inspired them to try new and imaginative approaches using everyday materials to create something special. Necessity has definitely been the mother of invention.”
See all the student responses to the Granulation Challenge on Instagram
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For further information, images and interviews contact:
The Glasgow School of Art ,
Press and Media Relations
Lesley Booth,
+ 44 (0)779 941 4474
Dr. Astrid Fendt, curator Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek
Telefon +49 89 289275-05