Brilliantly Birmingham Talks Programme in association with Arts Co
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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