Classification: Jewellery Artist

Based in Nelson, Martin de Ruyter has used the tools passed down to him from his grandfather, great grandfather and great-great grandfather to create stylised poppies from used brass bullet shells. It’s a new form of what was known as Trench Art in World War I, when soldiers would create art from objects found in the trenches, during quiet periods between battles.

He references those battles with the colours of the Anzac Poppy in the brooches, including the classic red/black poppy, alongside newer variations with small poppies dotted on a white or pink background. A recent addition is the Ukraine poppy brooch, half blue and half yellow, highlighting the struggle against Russia in that country.

About the Artist

Lynn Kelly is a noted contemporary jeweller who is based in Christchurch and exhibits widely in solo and group shows both in New Zealand and internationally, including Australia, Scotland, France, Germany and the USA.

Lynn’s work is often inspired by plants and historical botanical drawings and her jewellery often uses a mixture of unusual, organic and traditional materials. Her map pieces have tiny maps of special places – Fiordland, Central Otago, the Pacific sea floor – printed onto sterling silver. Her kowhai pin and rata earrings use recycled materials along with precious metals.

Her work was represented in the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th New Zealand Jewellery Biennale Exhibitions. She won the Molly Morpeth Canaday Wear Aotearoa Award in 2004, both the Dowse Foundation Gold Award and the Caselberg Trust Creative Wilderness Residency to Dusky Sound in 2007. She received a Creative New Zealand Research grant to travel to Britain in 2008 and has had residencies in Nelson, Adelaide, Bannockburn, Central Otago and Auckland Council’s residency in Scandrett Regional Park.

About the Artist

Avant-garde jewellery, bold designs, repurposing unexpected materials into objects of striking beauty…

Minimalist in design, strong in statement, Mike Andre’s art jewellery explores the beauty both from the natural world and repurposed man-made objects, framed in hand worked and distinctive sterling silver forms. Everything from glass test tubes, to beach ironsand, to shells and rare or semi-precious stones. His creations are generous in proportion, and balance between the delicate and the weighty, in substance and intent.

His underlying premise: Art is a statement – and statements can’t be invisible. And his jewellery is made to be noticed.

There’s sometimes an underlying message – about care for the planet, and the universe, the need for us to pay more attention; also story telling, within a very wearable object. But ultimately, his work simply celebrates form, surface, contrast, beauty in the world. He carries that through to presentation – handcrafting beautiful wooden boxes, to protect and showcase neckpieces when they are not being worn.

Born in Poland, now based firmly in Marlborough, NZ, and the waters of its Sounds, Mike Andre has established a unique approach to the world – and the world of fine art jewellery.

About the Artist

Elfi Spiewack’s jewellery finds its origins in her immediate environment.  Using her European training and knowledge of materials, her designs are often inspired by nature and the processes of experimentation and play.

While conventional jeweller’s metals of silver and gold often form the basis of her work, Elfi enjoys incorporating found objects into her designs, elevating non-precious materials to the realm of precious jewellery.  Each collection of jewellery explores and extends the properties of her chosen medium, such as the colour and light of gemstones or the contrast of worked silver with the dense opacity of beach pebbles, broken china or the qualities of polished bone.

The design process is often stimulated by her observations of natural materials, shapes and phenomena, but she also finds inspiration in urban culture and current events. She also likes to collaborate with artists in other media. Elfi constantly searches for new means of creative expression, challenging preconceived ideas of the style and meaning of jewellery objects: “I basically like to develop new ways of seeing, wearing and maybe even defining jewellery.”

Born in Germany, and training there as a goldsmith, Elfi moved to New Zealand in 1999 and lives in Christchurch. She has exhibited widely in New Zealand, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and the USA, and is respected throughout as a technically skilled and innovative contemporary jeweller and designer. She has had several public exhibitions featuring her jewellery attached to images of old master paintings.

Commissions of pieces may be possible, similar to those marked as sold, please enquire.

About the Artist

Jeremy Leeming is known particularly for his stunning work in silver and NZ stone especially basalt, argillite, pounamu (NZ jade) and lapis lazuli, although he also works in copper, raw silver, gold and semi precious stones, and in unusual materials like Corian and antique rimu wood.

His work has a strong Scandinavian influence in the aesthetic, not surprising as he learned his craft with the Danish contemporary jeweller/silversmith, Jens Hansen, in Nelson. That early influence is evident in many of Jeremy Leeming’s distinctive designs. Jeremy completed his diploma in Craft Design at the Otago School of Art in 1992. From 2001 to 2008 he carved a different and international reputation in the restaurant trade, with chef Peter Gordon, opening Providores and The Tapas Room in London. He did periodically work on jewellery during this period but it was on his return to NZ in 2009 that he began to create and exhibit work full time, with numerous solo exhibitions around the country.

Recent Works

Some designs may be possible in different materials eg lapis lazuli, corian, pounamu as available. Please enquire.

More About the Artist

‘My motivation is to find simplicity in form, to create work with clean lines using a simple palette of metals, precious and semi-precious stones. I am fascinated by the enduring qualities of New Zealand Jasper, Argillite, Basalt and Nephrite. Using techniques of lapidary I work on each piece individually, ensuring that each form is created in sympathy with the material.’