On first glance Imogen Belfield’s stand at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout Exhibition could be a display cabinet of rare and precious rocks. Chunks of gold-plated bronze are cast using innovative moulding techniques from paper and fruit giving them an organic man-made form that is unique to each individual piece. The bronze and gold plating is imbued with a range of rich gemstones, porcelain, glazes and metals. Imogen’s material choices are motivated by accessibility because she is keen to have her work available to a wider community. She states that she is particularly drawn to fuchsite (a jade green iridescent stone), which she discovered at an exhibition of rocks and minerals in The Natural History Museum, London. Green fuchsite and heavy gold produce luxurious pieces fit for Cleopatra. This exhibition had a big influence on Imogen in terms of material and aesthetic. She even raided the gift shop for stones which now find themselves integrated into her designs
Imogen uses the stones as a starting point. She aims to retain their natural appearance and sculpts around them to compliment and harmonize the piece as a whole. Imogen states, “I often see jewellery and think that the stones appear to just be stuck on without consideration and look disjointed”… “I like to embody the stones into the piece and make it as a whole”. This gives the appearance of a beautiful and rare product of nature, much like elegantly formed driftwood.
Imogen is interested in architecture, organic architecture, buildings and geometry and she is fascinated by scale. She cites Zaha Hadid and Gaudi as her inspirations. Architecture and her practise as a sculpture filter into her jewellery designs to produce large statement pieces. This combined with her attraction to nature and the organic gives her designs an interesting mix of boldness versus subtlety, and modern versus classic.
As a new designer Imogen is excited to be exhibiting at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout where she hopes learn a lot from the environment and looks forward to gaging people’s reactions to her work.
Imogen uses the stones as a starting point. She aims to retain their natural appearance and sculpts around them to compliment and harmonize the piece as a whole. Imogen states, “I often see jewellery and think that the stones appear to just be stuck on without consideration and look disjointed”… “I like to embody the stones into the piece and make it as a whole”. This gives the appearance of a beautiful and rare product of nature, much like elegantly formed driftwood.
Imogen is interested in architecture, organic architecture, buildings and geometry and she is fascinated by scale. She cites Zaha Hadid and Gaudi as her inspirations. Architecture and her practise as a sculpture filter into her jewellery designs to produce large statement pieces. This combined with her attraction to nature and the organic gives her designs an interesting mix of boldness versus subtlety, and modern versus classic.
As a new designer Imogen is excited to be exhibiting at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout where she hopes learn a lot from the environment and looks forward to gaging people’s reactions to her work.
Words : Amy Lockwood
Image : Ezzidin Alwan