One City: A World of Contemporary Jewellery

31st October, 2008 -

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One City: A World of Contemporary Jewellery

November 28th – December 21st 2008

The ninth season of contemporary jewellery sparkles at venues across Birmingham and the West Midlands this winter.

For nine years, Brilliantly Birmingham has led the way in celebrating the best new and emerging contemporary designer maker talent from across the UK and around the world.

Commission a new piece direct, pick up a beautifully unique Christmas gift or discover the next big designer maker. Experience Brilliantly Birmingham at the following locations:

Find out more at www.brilliantlybirmingham.com or call 0121 464 1187 for detailed listings about events, venues and articipating designer makers.

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Brilliantly Birmingham Talks Programme in association with Arts Co

30th October, 2008 -

In its ninth year Brilliantly Birmingham is a showcase for designer-makers and other individuals involved in selling and creating jewellery in Birmingham and across the West Midlands.

The talks programme is aimed at the interested public to provide a forum to stimulate discussion and debate, exploring jewellery in its widest cultural context and celebrating the rich tradition of designer making that is unique to the city.

All That Glitters…, 6.30pm, Tuesday 2nd December, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University

We know all about ethical coffee and bananas, cotton sheets, even cut flowers. Now there’s ethical jewellery, but what does that really mean? There is no way of knowing if the gold in jewellery has come from a mine with an impressive environment record, or an unscrupulous, paramilitary operation.

The discussion will explore the Jeweller’s role in contemporary society, and the responsibilities faced but also what actually constitutes ethical - for instance, can child labour be called ethical? Should we impose our western ideas of ethical onto developing communities and should we even be mining gold at all? Almost eighty percent of newly-mined gold is used for jewellery, while there is already plenty stashed in bank vaults.

Speakers:

Lucy Siegle is a British journalist and writer on environmental issues. She has written a weekly ethical living column for The Observer since 2004 and two books: Green Living in the Urban Jungle (2000) and To Die For (Harper Collins, 2008). She reports and speaks about environmental issues on TV and radio, including ITV1’s The 5 O’clock Show with Richard Hammond, Five’s The Wright Stuff, Sky News and BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours. Siegle’s most recent program is called Guilt Trip, a series on ethical consumerism and the true cost of consumables, which will be broadcast on BBC Two in 2008.

Sharon Walker, Urth Solutions. Sharon Walker heads up URTH’s London office. She has been an editor and journalist for more than fifteen years, working for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph and Shape magazine. Sharon was features editor at Harper’s Bazaar before leaving to launch URTH in the UK. URTH is a values-driven company that redefines luxury for the ethical consumer.  (URTH Ethical Gold is non-conflict and uses no forced or hazardous child labour and guarantees that URTH’s values of Dignity, Integrity, Health, Peace, Community and Ecology has been met).

Stephen Webster is the ultimate diamond geezer. From a modest start in the Thames estuary town of Gravesend near London, Webster has attracted some of the world’s most alluring and glamorous clients with his unique and edgy style, combining a passion for contemporary craft values with a love of fashion, music and modern rap ‘n’ roll street styles. Stephen is four times UK winner of the ‘Luxury Jeweller of the Year’. He recently designed a collection for ethical gold company Urth.

Fetish Fashion, 6.30pm, Tuesday 9th December, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University

Over the last 30 years, fashion designers and style icons have stolen from the fetishist’s closet.  But so have jewellery designers, with some interesting results - especially as the array of body parts open to adornment has grown. The discussion will explore jewellery in the context of fashion and specifically the growing ‘sex market’, and its role within it.  Is it truly dangerous to embrace fetishism or is playing with it cute? Is it just that sex has become more overt, more discussed and jewellery designers have developed products to meet demand?  Or has jewellery led the way?

Speakers:

Kathy Lette first achieved succès de scandale as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues. After several years as a newspaper columnist and television sitcom writer in America and Australia, she wrote ten international bestsellers including Foetal Attraction, Mad Cows and How to Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints). Her novels have been published in fourteen languages around the world. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

Kate Spicer has worked for most major magazines and newspapers over the years, and now writes mainly for the Sunday Times on matters fashion, beauty, lifestyle. She is an occasional broadcaster and endurance athlete and permanently, she is hungry for more of everything.

Irish Designer Paul Seville trained in Fashion and Tailoring at the London College of Fashion. On graduating he set up his studio and began to create instinctive sculptured and textured jewellery and accessories from the finest leathers and materials for a number of fashion houses including Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Romeo Gigli, Coco de Mer and Victoria’s Secret. Seville has been designing and producing an exclusive ‘Boudoir’ Collection for Coco de Mer, London & USA since 2002 which along with his work for fashion houses has allowed his unique style to develop without the stigma of the ‘Fetish’ label.

Call Prim Currie on 0121 464 1187 to book a seminar place.  All talks are free.

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Dr Chris Upton’s Walks in the Quarter

30th October, 2008 -

Local Historian Dr Chris Upton returns this year to the Jewellery Quarter with a brand new series of walks to amaze and inform audiences. Coming up:

Peardrops, Real Ale and Mints (Saturday, 29 November at 2.30 pm)
Warstone Lane has changed just a little since the Ice Age. Today we’ll explore just a few thousand years of its history. We’ll make a mint, meet a lady who smells of peardrops, and find out why sand was the most valuable commodity in the Jewellery Quarter.

Begins by the Chamberlain Clock, at the junction of Warstone Lane and Vyse Street

The Architect, the Terrorist and a Pelican (Saturday, 6 December at 2.30 pm)
Today we’ll sneak just out side the Jewellery Quarter and take a trip down Hangman’s Lane. Here we will meet (arguably) Birmingham’s greatest architect and explore the factories, pubs and wildlife of Great Hampton Street.

Begins at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Vyse Street.

Gold in the Hills (Saturday, 13 December at 2.30 pm)
Key Hill cemetery is one of the most atmospheric places in the city. Take a break from the 21st Century and bury yourself in Old Birmingham. Along the way we’ll meet some of the city’s founding fathers, a couple of revolutionaries and the inventor of the light-bulb. And on the way we’ll learn how they dug the biggest hole in Birmingham.

Begins at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Vyse Street.

Pen Nibs and Pencil Cases (Saturday, 20 December at 2.30 pm)
They made more than just jewellery in the Jewellery Quarter. This walk will look at some of the less well-known trades in the area. And while we’re at it, let’s visit the site of the largest public meeting in British history, and find out what Victorian policemen wore on their feet.

Begins by the porch of St Paul’s church in St Paul’s Square.

For further information and to book a place on one of Dr Chris Upton’s walks, please contact Prim Currie on 0121 464 1187 or email prim.currie@birmingham.gov.uk

Please note that each walk is limited to only 25 people, so don’t delay! We advise you to wrap up warm and wear sensible footwear.

To book a place, please call Prim Currie on 0121 464 1187.

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Call For Designer Makers

16th October, 2008 -

Download your FLUX Application Pack

Brilliantly Birmingham - International Contemporary Jewellery Festival is entering into its ninth year. Since 1999, it has grown from an informal group of local designer jewellery exhibitors who gathered together to market themselves under a single brand to an international contemporary jewellery festival attracting designer makers from across the globe. Birmingham and the West Midlands region are rich in contemporary jewellery talent and Birmingham’s historic yet thriving Jewellery Quarter is unique in the world. Brilliantly Birmingham’s aim is to celebrate and promote this distinctive character of the city/region under a brand that stands for innovation, quality and style.

FLUX, A BRILLIANTLY BIRMINGHAM curated exhibition, now in its third year, will create exposure for the best of contemporary jewellery design through a highly visible and high profile public selling event in Birmingham city centre. A dynamic and ambitious exhibition of new and emerging designer makers will promote challenging and diverse new work, create a marketplace and contribute to the city as a visitor attraction.

BRILLIANTLY BIRMINGHAM will take place at a variety of venues across the city and region from 28th November 2008 – 21st December 2008. FLUX is open to new and emerging designer makers, having no longer than five years graduated in their specialist field and based in the UK. Participation in FLUX is by open submission and a selection panel process.

BRILLIANTLY BIRMINGHAM will not charge designer makers an exhibition fee, public entry fee or commission on sold work. Each application needs to be submitted with a £10 administration charge. Payment can be made by cheque, payable to Birmingham City Council.

If you are a professional designer maker based in the UK download a full FLUX application pack from www.brilliantlybirmingham.com from Wednesday 15th October. For general enquiries please telephone Prim Currie on 0121 464 1187.

Your final application should include submission of the FLUX application form, a copy of your C.V. along with 10 images of recent work (2003-2008).

Submission deadline TUESDAY 4th November 2008.

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