Introducing WELFE BOWYER

What is your background and how does that inform your art?

I studied Architecture at Victoria University in Wellington and was still working in the field when I began to create jewellery. I have a love and obsession for architecture, sculpture and forms of any scale, and my jewellery is heavily affected by these influences, from understanding structure, weight, materiality, patina, texture, and colour and of course how these elements interact with the body. I want my jewellery to have a tactility to it that cannot be ignored.

What process, materials, techniques do you use to create your artwork?

I use a combination of materials when creating my works, from traditional metals of gold, silver, and bronze (both cast and fabricated) in combination with found objects I gather from my immediate surroundings or that I have collected over time. Most recently these seem to involve wood, rope and paint. I also like to 'sample' textures from the environment and replicate them.

What is your artwork exploring, underneath everything?

My work has the ability to uplift materials that might have otherwise had no value. I explore ways to subvert tradition, hierarchy, and the expected norms of what might be deemed precious. In combination with celebrating the process through documentation and recording of data, revealing this information can start to inform and change the finished piece.

How does art-making impact other parts of your life?

As I like to utilise found materials in my work, this has a large effect on all parts of my life as I am always looking out for potential objects that might work, in any situation or location. For example, one of my current hobbies is sailing, and working on a wooden boat is providing interesting scrap materials such as rope, wood, and metals that can be upcycled into elements of jewellery.

Left: WAY MARKERS NECKLACE © Welfe Bowyer 2021 - Found Wood, Paint, Steel, Nylon

Right: UNTITLED PENDANT © Welfe Bowyer 2021 - Sterling Silver, Enamel, Nylon, Gemstones