All over the world, jewellery is worn to decorate the body, to indicate status and identity, or for its religious significance. The biannual international design competition New Traditional Jewellery challenges contemporary jewellers from all over the world to use these emblems of historical or ethnographic significance as a starting point for new designs. In addition to this general concept, each year concentrates on a specific theme.
This year the theme is True Colours. In the most literal sense, it is about the history, meanings, value, magic, and power of colour. For example, the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia believed that the colour blue would protect them from evil, while 35,000 years ago primitive man used pink fibres to decorate clothing.
True Colours can also be interpreted literally as revealing one’s colours or one’s true nature. For example, the red and black pompons on the hats worn by women from Germany’s Black Forest indicate whether or not the person wearing the hat is married, and women decorate their clothing with traditional buttons.
Both meanings of True Colours appear again in again in over three hundred submissions from thirty-four countries. The exhibition presents a selection of these submissions demonstrating the great variation of colour in contemporary jewellery.
Winners NTJ 2010:
*Student winners:
Serin Oh
Penka Arabova
*Established jewellery artists and silverdesigners:
Amanda Caines
Tove Rygg
Auk Russchen
Young-Joo LEE
The theme for the biennial international design contest New Traditional Jewellery is True Colours. This is the fourth edition of the contest and may said to have been very successful, with more than 300 entries of jewellery designers from 33 countries. The pieces submitted were judged by a technical jury of six persons, each with their own background – teacher, jewellery designer, academic, curator and fashion designer.
An important aspect of New Traditional Jewellery is that the participants should find their inspiration in historical and/or ethnographic jewellery. The theme selected this year has a double meaning. It is about colour, literally, but also means ‘showing your colours’ or ‘showing your true nature’. The entries were representative of this dichotomy with pieces showing an outspoken use of colour, but also with an enormous ethnic variety. It gave the jury a splendid opportunity to get an idea of what is happening at an international level in the field of contemporary jewellery design, with jewellers coming from countries like Finland, Iraq, Australia and Chile.
After some elaborate discussions the jury has selected the five winners listed below, among whom two students. While making the selection the jury aimed at diversity in order to show the various aspects within the theme of True Colours.
Het juryrapport is te lezen op http://www.newtraditionaljewellery.com/ntj/NL/winners_2010.html
Amanda Caines (1961) multi-coloured Urban Tribal Necklace
The multi-coloured Urban Tribal Necklace of Amanda Caines (1961) from Great Britain fits the theme of the contest perfectly. She has taken a good look at the necklaces of coloured beads worn by the Zulus where the necklace is a means of communication and the colours stand for a code that tells something about the age group and social status of the wearer. To make her contemporary version Caines uses rejected telephone and computer wires made of plastic in bright colours – she winds wool around them, fastens vintage fabrics to them and subsequently decorates them with beads.
The jury was pleasantly impressed by this year’s powerful entries of the students, with surprising and original designs. The prizes for the students were awarded to Penka Arabova (1980) from Bulgaria and Serin Oh from Korea.
Penka Arabova green brooch
Penka Arabova’s green brooch was inspired by an old Bulgarian tradition where red and white cotton threads tied together are worn as pendants, brooches or bracelets. The colour red of these so-called Martenizas is symbolic of youth and the colour white for age, and wearing them brings health and happiness. For her brooch Arabova has used different colours and materials which she associates with the old tradition in her native country and in doing so created her own modern guardian against illness and misfortune.
Serin OH – ring
At first sight Serin OH’s ring looks like a bronze nugget, coloured black, mounted on a classic ring. But upon closer inspection all kinds of jewellery and parts thereof can be distinguished, among which precious stones and a small angel, which have fused together. It is a reference to the costume jewellery that is sold in the shopping centres of Korea, mass-produced and no longer bearing any relationship to the history of Korea. Serin Oh pictures the confusion and identity crisis of modern Korea by fusing these trinkets to a whole.
Auk Russchen (1971) brooch ‘Ode’
The brooch Ode by Auk Russchen (1971) was discussed extensively by the jury and became the surprising winner. To Russchen True Colours means who you are deep inside. Showing your inside to the world. Her unusual choice of material agrees with this. Using thinly cut strips of goatskin she crochets an organic form reminiscent of intestines. The tips are of pink yarn and resemble socks. The raw, almost grubby colour of the goatskin makes the small pink details stand out. She arrived at the colour pink after reading an article about primordial man using pink coloured fibres to decorate clothing as long as 35,000 years ago. Her brooch is an ode to her and our distant ancestors.
Tove Rygg (1963) necklace Link
The necklace Link by Tove Rygg (1963) from Norway does not catch the eye because of its distinct, but rather its very subtle use of colour. During a labour-intensive process she crochets long cords of gold, silver and high-grade steel. She adds small precious stones and plaits the cords into one long chain, based on old chains of the Vikings. The various stones, haematite, smoky quartz, agate and peridote, are symbolic of the various aspects of the Norwegian landscape, such as lakes, fjords and forests. The blood agate is a personal reference to her own blood and her personal relationship with her native country Norway.
Tove Knuts
Carolina Gimeno - brooch
Nominees NTJ 2010:
| Alejandra Solar |
Mexico |
Amanda Caines |
UK |
| Anabelle Royo |
Spain |
Annette Duburg |
Netherlands |
| Annika Pettersson |
Sweden |
Atty Tantivit |
Thailand |
| Auk Russchen |
Netherlands |
Ayala Raz |
Israel |
| Barbora Dzurakova |
Slovakia |
Belinda Koopman |
Australia |
| Carina Chitsaz-Shoshtary |
Germany |
Carolina Gimeno |
Chile |
| Cattherine Buman |
Australia |
Daniel Michel |
Germany |
| Denise Julia Reytan |
Germany |
Dora Haralambaki |
Greece |
| Esther Liebhold |
Germany |
Fabrizio Tridenti |
Italy |
| Floor Mommersteeg |
Netherlands |
Francisca Bauza |
Germany |
| Giovanni Sicuro |
Italy |
Gular Mustafa |
Iraq |
| Hartog & Henneman |
Netherlands |
Heejoo Kim |
Korea |
| Ingeborg Vandamme |
Netherlands |
Iris Goldman |
Germany |
| Isabell Schaupp |
Germany |
Jessica Turrell |
UK |
| Joao Vaz |
Portugal |
Judith Bloedjes |
Netherlands |
| Judith MacCaig |
UK |
Karen Vanmol |
Belgium |
| Katharina Tannous |
Germany |
Kirsi Johanna Kaasinen |
Finland |
| Kirsten Spuijbroek |
Netherlands |
Lien Hereijgers |
Belgium |
| Maryvonne Wellen |
Germany |
Melissa Miller |
Australia |
| Michaela Donsbach |
Germany |
Mirjam Frankle |
Germany |
| Mirjam Geiss |
Germany |
Nicolas Cheng |
|
| Ou Jiun You |
Taiwan |
Penka Arabova |
Bulgaria |
| Pia Sommerlad |
Germany |
Serin Oh |
Korea |
| Simone Brewster |
UK |
Siv Jager Jansson |
Sweden |
| Stephanie Hensle |
Germany |
Sylvia Potente |
Australia |
| Tamara Grüner |
Germany |
Thahoura Mona Hadinejad |
Iran |
| Thea Clark |
US |
Tove Knuts |
Sweden |
| Tove Rygg |
Norway |
Vivi Touloumidi |
Greece |
| Willemijn de Greef |
Netherlands |
Young-joo Lee |
Korea |
Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem
Utrechtseweg 87,
Arnhem, The Netherlands.
Tel.+31( 0)26 3775300.
http://www.mmkarnhem.nl/.
Open: Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Angela Ciobanu - « Piece for the heart » (broche) silver, fine gold, recycled silk paper, fretsaw blades
Isabelle Busnel, brooch – white silicone rubber with magnets
Viktoria Munzker Necklace: Corialias, 2014 – Porcelain, glass, Silver, granules, old plastic pearls
Mar Sanchez - broche oct 2014
Sebastien Carré – Collier, bois, fibres, perles,2014 – Necklace, wood, fibers, beads – photo Lee Makkam
Sébastien Carré - Organique, Collier, 2014 bois, fibres, perles, porté 
Alina Carp – brooch 2014
Ana Carolina Escobar - Ring: Memoria-Historia, 2014 – silicon, Blown glass, Gold Plated Brass
Carina Chistaz-Shoshtary Brooch: Stained 6 Graffiti, silver, stainless steel Graffiti paint taken from a Graffiti wall, divided in fine layers, form hollowly built, form made strong with layer of bioresin inside
Sangji YUN – brooch
Karen Vanmol necklace: Cultivate – wood, laminate, plastic vintage, beads, brass, spray paint, silver Cutting, soldering, gluing, spray , painting
Cai Xuan Wu – Brooch: Under the sea – Acrilic, Plastic – Hand knitting, colour dyening.
Nicole Schuster Brooch 
Ingeborg Vandamme Necklace: Tear catcher, 2014 – silver, paper, pigment
Aiko Fujita – (AFEDAP – diplomes 2014)
Karin Roy Andersson - Brooch: Catching Big Fish, 2013 Recycled plastics; icecream boxes, fast food containers, textile, steel 
Konstantinos Konstantopoulos
Liisa Hashimoto Pin: Silver chair shadow – silver
Maria Tsimpiskaki, Ring: Corrosion-Corruption: The Negative of Dreams, 2014 – Sterling Silver, gold plated, pvc, patina – Traditional metal working techniques, hand forming for PVC.
George Giannoutsos
Gigi Mariani – Bracelet: Moments « And the clouds were running », 2014 – Silver, 18kt yellow gold, niello, patina
Akis Goumas & Georgia Gremouti (for the textile part)
Teresa Faris Necklace: Collaboration with a bird III, 2014 – silver, wood altered by a bird
Peter Hoogeboom, Necklace, « red lantern » 2014 – Taiwanese porcelain, silver
José Marin 
se qualcuno mi lo sa dire ……
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