Welcome to Jenna Barnes Jewellery
My Story
Hello I am Jenna. I have always been an artist, however my creative journey with jewellery really took off after I had my daughter who is now 3. I am a very busy mum as I also have twins who are 9, but making jewellery has always been my passion. So I feel very lucky to be able to follow my dream.
I love nature and I am always collecting shells, seed pods and leaves when I take my children to the park or the beach. This is a great inspiration in my work creating fine silver shells and other sterling silver designs.
My Inspiration
I hope to provide a range of inspiring and uplifting jewellery for you to you to choose from. I work with recycled sterling silver, some bonded gold or sometimes gold vermeil, and more recently with copper and brass. At the moment I am working on a new range which will incorporate enamels that will bring more colour into my designs, which I hope will be fun and cheerful to wear.
As a jeweller I am passionate about the qualities of the sterling and fine silver that I am working with and the processes which forms the work. As I play with form, shape and surface texture, ideas come to me. It is like there is a dialogue between myself and the work. The qualities of the silver, how malleable it is when forming, or the way that two pieces can seamlessly be soldered together are so pleasing. Shapes I have come across through playing inspire new designs, and textures and different finishes can create visual contrasts within the same piece.
Adding stones for interest and reproducing leaves or shells found in nature also inform my work. Using techniques such as riveting, enamelling or hammering, is a great way to develop ideas in new ways. I love discovering different design elements as I am creating at my work bench, and seeing where my creativity will take me next! I am not sure what creative ideas will come, as I work in a way which allows many possibilities to develop. I then make decisions on compositions and aesthetics which are the most elegant to form the design.
Culture and Meaning
As an artist I am interested in cultural aesthetics and how culture brings us together and gives us a sense of belonging and identity. In today's world we are often drawn to, or borrow from many different cultures of the past without knowing the full meaning behind aesthetics from that time. So I am interested in how we can make our own culture and bring our own meaning to the pieces that we wear. I hope my jewellery can provide a way for people to express their individual, unique style in a world where lots of things are mass produced.
Trash to Treasure!
I am also fascinated by the idea that found items could be transformed into treasures. For example I recently found an old crumpled button stud and made a mould from it, as I thought it would be interesting to turn something that has been thrown away or fallen off and weathered into something valuable and precious. Something I am working on currently along with my experiments with enamelling.
I graduated in 2003 from Sheffield Hallam University Studying Fine Art Sculpture, with Metalwork and Jewellery. I have a PGCE in Art, Secondary Education, from 2007.
I work from my studio in Saltash, Cornwall.
