My jewellery collection #30

Holy kniption Batman.

I have ticked off one of the longest-standing and most heartfelt items on my lust-list … I own a Helen Britton ring.

I know!! There has been much dancing and squealing on the inside today.

I feel I must apologise a little – these are all photographs taken at night. I couldn’t wait until the morning, and decent daylight, to share such immense news.

with the Gallery Funaki photograph – all mine!

You cannot imagine how comfortable it feels on – it’s quite wide and thick, so it is almost a beautiful surprise to be so immensely comfortable. And the hollow construction means it cannot be resized, so lucky me it fit beautifully.

Of course its dimensions mean you really feel it on, and regular readers will know my penchant for jewellery I can feel.

beautiful top detail in red gold

I’m a little bit in love.

side detail, oxidised silver

This is a significant investment, and I feel I just may be on the verge of being able to call myself a genuine collector. Perhaps.

Sincere thanks to Katie at Gallery Funaki for being such a wonderful gallery owner, exceptionally knowledgeable and terribly patient with me as I wrestled with the purchase.

I am SO going to wear this like I MEAN IT.

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Other stories about Helen Britton:

• 13Oct14: My jewellery collection #29
• 24May14: Helen Britton ‘pairs of pieces‘ @ Gallery Funaki
• 04Feb14: ‘PROJECT: Jewellery for T-shirts‘ @ Gallery Funaki
• 21Jan13: Admiring: Speckner and Britton
• 01Dec11: Helen Britton ‘industrial‘ @ Gallery Funaki – part 2
• 01Dec11: Helen Britton ‘industrial‘ @ Gallery Funaki

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My jewellery collection #29

I’ve finally had time to pop into Gallery Funaki (as evidenced by my recent post) and collect my Helen Britton Showtime bag…

showtime

… and therefore I now have a new piece to add to my collection: a Helen Britton (obviously!) little sterling silver lucky tooth charm.

Helen Britton piece

A genuinely significant piece of Helen’s is still on my lust-list … soon Karen, soon.

Showtime!

Oh good lordy!
Look at what Gallery Funaki is doing ….

reproduced with explicit permission from Gallery Funaki

Holy moly!!!

Helen Britton ‘pairs of pieces’ @ Gallery Funaki

Regular readers will know of my exceptionally strong admiration of Helen Britton‘s jewellery (she’s on my lust-list and I’ve been smitten for a while now).

Well, I was beside myself* while viewing her latest exhibition: ‘pairs of pieces‘ at Gallery Funaki.

photograph taken with permission

The exhibition media is eloquent and enlightening, and worth repeating in full:

““When I’m making my work, although I rarely have a clear idea of the end result, I am in pursuit of a fleeting vision that I chase along until the pieces start to materialize on my worktable. Over so many years of making I have observed that this often results in pairs of pieces. There they are then, in the end, these two friendly companions, singing together, vibrating at the right intensity, complementing each other, yet quite autonomous.

What happened along the way? Was there just too much to say to fit into one work? The vision is often dense and chaotic, so perhaps it is a kind of spreading and organizing within the creative process that produces the two possibilities. And this is jewellery after all, so there needs to be space for the wearer.

It not only like this though. At other times, works are being made or coming back to the studio. I lay them out to revisit them, learn more about them, and during this process I recognize quite clearly relationships between pairs, that may in fact be separated by months or even years. For this exhibition I have made and gathered works that examine this experience.”

Helen Britton, 2014”

photograph taken with permission

Once again the monochrome rings called out to me. They’re absolutely stunning.

If the one on the left in the image below hadn’t already been sold I expect I’d be fretting over whether to purchase it or not … completely amazing.

courtesy of the gallery; click on image for original source

The neckpieces are beautiful too – which even surprised me, as I don’t usually respond to too much colouring in jewellery. There was a brooch with the most enchanting lavender / pale rose kind of colour that I couldn’t take my eyes from.

And then there was this ring .. swoon.

courtesy of the gallery; click on image for original source

I also really liked the exhibition design: the uneven and rough-edged constructions are ideal stages for the jewellery.

Make sure you look at all of the images on the Gallery Funaki site – too beautiful. In fact, go and see it in person if you can.

Helen Britton ‘pairs of pieces‘ is at Gallery Funaki until 14th June 2014.

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* I may have squealed a little when I spotted the rings.
I’m also pretty sure I did a little skippy-dance as I made my way towards them.

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