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The thing that is casual but is actually important as a part of someone.
The thing indispensable when noticing.
I wish what calyx makes has such an atomosphere.
The thing that can be changed by people wearing it, and has a small story.
I am making such the things.

Career

Exhibition

From the start till now, I’ve been consistently using glass as a medium for my works because I deeply believe in the potential of glass.
Glass is such an impressionable material that enables me to form exactly what I image.
However, handling glass in the flame into a wished form needs a skillful touch in every moment.
Acquiring such craftsman skill excites me and this could be the reason why I am enthusiastic about glass.
When I was an art student, I was inspired by the insolite (“unusual” in French) aesthetics and started to work with glass.
Motifs of the insolite aesthetics may be grotesque and yet beautiful, and I think such ambiguity fascinates us.
About my glass works, I carefully choose my own insolite motifs from my daily life.
Wearing jewelries is an act to transform you into a unique art.
When you take and put my glass works on you, I hope they will be sublimed with your sensibility, then become a unique art.

Career

Exhibition

My aim is to create “Playful beauty” which has a strong impact with an eccentricity that express kitsch, elegant, delicate yet strong within the jewellery form.

Career

Exhibition

Prize

• 2006Diana Morgan Second Prize, RMIT Post Graduate Show, Melbourne
• 2006Marzee Prize, Marzee International Graduate Exhibition, the Netherlands

I want to make a trigger : the trigger that enables people to encounter each other, the trigger that makes people aware of a certain situation.
Crying, eating, the things surrounding us in our life, the things which we might pass by without being aware of their existence ……..
We are repeating the same cycle unconsciously.
I do not think that I can have a big influence on the society.
But I hope I can serve a small trigger for you through my work.

Career

Exhibition

Prize

• 2007ZOKEI award to best sculpture in 2007, Tokyo ZOKEI University
• 2010The winner of TALENTE 2010, Munich

The motif of my jewelry work is, Beauty of Nature.
Their materials are mostly silver, copper, and brass.
I always try to work on and jewelry-make these natural treasures affectionately.

Career

Exhibition

Prize

• 2001Itami International Craft Exhibition Theme “JEWELLRY” Itami Prize
• 2004Itami International Craft Exhibition Theme “Shuki/Shuhaidai” Osaka craft park Prize

“Beauty might be seen as vain, but I find it interesting to contrast beauty with the unpleasant, serious and not so nice.
The sad and disgusting can also be something beautiful.
I use beauty to get the viewers attention, but there is so much more that I would like to convey other than beauty.
Human weaknesses and underlying defense mechanisms are often themes that recur in my work.
I try to keep an open attitude to methods and materials as I find my way to new techniques, combinations and approaches, but simultaneously always strongly rooted to the past”.

Career

Exhibition

Prize

• 2009So Fresh Award Talent winner Pierre Lang, Vienna, Austria
• 20082nd prize (audience vote) “Annual International Graduation Show” MIDORA fair, Leipzig, Germany
• 2008“Marzee International Graduation Show prize” Holland
• 2005“Marzee International Graduation Show prize” Holland
• 2005“Ädelaward” Sweden

I did not like jewellery.
However, I think I like it now.
I want to make jewellery with beauty and witty that connects a viewer, wearer and me.

Career

Exhibition

• 2007MoDA London
• 2007Group exhibition “ExhibitionN0.1” Pineal Eye London
• 2007Ars Ornata Europeana Student Competition
• 2007Group exhibition “Hide Out” Red Gate Gallery London
• 2009“MADE” The 24th New Designers London
• 2009Group exhibition “Babel” Blackall Studios London

Melinda Young has participated in over 80 exhibitions and her practice spans exhibition work and a limited edition production range. She makes all of her pieces by hand and revels in the individuality and idiosyncratic edge that the hand brings to bear upon her work.
Her surroundings provide continual inspiration and materials for her work, from the things she finds on the ground to architecture, the landscape and the social condition of the body. She loves colour and frequently plays with a monochromatic palette in her works.
Recently she has been working on a project titled 「Take a ball of thread…」exploring the wearable potential of a large industrial spool of pink cotton thread.
The works made as part of this project are documented in a blog established to chart its progress (http://pinkthreadjewels.blogspot.com) and have been exhibited around Australia.

Career

Exhibition

I hope that my jewelry would connect the artist to the person wearing the piece as well as people observing the piece.

Career

Exhibition

• 1998/2000Japan jewelry art competition The Ueno Royal Museum Japan
• 2004Gold for Robert Smit / Metallic Yellow Stedelijk Museum CS Holland
• 2005/2006International silver art competition Poland
• 2005/2007Itami international craft exhibition Itami Museum of Art & Craft Japan
• 2006Gallery Funaki international jewelry award 2006 / connect Gallery Funaki Australia
• 2007new traditional jewelry SIERAAD / Symbol of faith SIERAAD award Holland
• 200860th Schmuck 2008 Handwerksmesse Germany
• 2008JUST MUST Estonian History Museum Estonia
• 2005/2006International silver art competition Poland

Prize

• 199725th International pearl design contest Japan
• 1998the International young fashion designers competition (Concours international des jeunes créateurs de mode)
• 199816th Asahi modern craft exhibition Japan

I find the door to the creative world from the familiar things in my daily life.
The doors are opening in the glass, on the face of the dog passing by my side, in a crying baby’s voice, in the open window and on my face in the mirror.
The place inside of these doors is very deep and I feel the existence of a parallel world here.

Career

Exhibition

• 2008Out of the shell - recontextualizing the pearl in contemporary jewelry USA
• 200810th of ALCHIMIA - Exhibition at Goldschmiedehause in Hanau Germany
• 2006Schmuck 2006 Germany
• 2006Schmuck 2006 in Museum of Arts and Design New York USA
• 2006Connect - gallery FUNAKI international jewellery award 2006 Australia
• 2006Transfiguration - Japanese Art Jewelry Today The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo Japan
• 2005Contemporary Jewellery from Japan Object gallery Australia
• 2005Fool’s Gold The Embassy gallery Scotland

　I used to make a jewelry using plastic plates and something close to me which I played with in childhood.
Recently,I face various materials, such as a pearl and pottery, and I am continuing making a work until a material is convinced in the form.
Although there is no rule in particular when making a work, I hope I can make many works which makes someone think “cool”.　　

Career

Prize

• 2006prize of Japan Jewelry Art Competition
• 2008prize of Japan Jewelry Art Competition
• 2009prize of Asahi gendai craft exhibition

My concept is “wearable junk antique”.
I’m trying to make the work with the presence which became old in aging processing by using industrial parts and junk antique parts.
Wearing the part which passed through the hand of various place, time, and people as an icon.
Please enjoy not only as accessories but also the story which the part has.

Career

Exhibition

• 2007nagaya shop mitta

I try to always keep an open mind to absorb what is happening around me and process it in my mind and use it for inspiration. It can be a charming piece of music or the way a branch move in the wind.
I can use a horrible catastrophe and mutate it into a beautiful story, use the history and twist and bend it into a new reality, my reality.
This world of my mind seems endless from time to time, but it needs to be inspired from the world outside to be able to exist.

Career

Exhibition

• 2005”Here and now” Hällefors Folk highschool
• 2006”Only Colour” Gothenburg art museum
• 2007”Myrorna” collaboration and exhibit in Gothenburg
• 2007Sintra Gothenburg
• 2007”Lovesigns” Platina Stockholm
• 2007“NK loves HDK” Gothenburg
• 2007”Hnoss exstended” Gothenburg
• 2008”Editions ‘07” The Röhsska museum Gothenburg
• 2008“Graduation show” Gallery hnoss Gothenburg
• 2008“Self-portraits” Escola massana Barcelona
• 2008“Eyoyat 08” La Basilica Barcelona
• 2008“Blicka bakåt…se in I framtiden” 316kubik Hudiksvall

My jewelry has no rules.
I always change materials with my moment feeling.
They are resin, metal, spices…
At the moment, I use resin the most.
I hope you enjoy the pattern of new materials.

Career

Exhibition

• 2005Gallery concel Shibuya
• 2006Gallery OONA Berlin
• 2007The Museum of Art&Crafts-ITAMI
• 2008LAPIN ET HALOT Aoyama

Prize

• 2007 Itami International Craft Exhibition

Somebody once told me,”You make jewellery for children, not for adults”.
And when I was a student in Tokyo the Japanese students in my class came up with a new word to describe my work.
The word was KimoKawaii and it’s a combination of two words kawaii (cute) and kimoi (disgusting).
I make jewellery for adults but with a touch of inspiration from my childhood.
When I was a child I played with stuffed animals, slugs and other living animals.
I have always been drawn to both biology and art and in my work I am trying to combine my interests. Nature is a great source of inspiration but so is Pokemon…

Career

Exhibition

The ephemeral nature of life is both beautiful and liberating and stands in contrast to my preferred working materials.
Impermanence expressed in metal and whatever else that is necessary to achieve my requirements.
Each piece I produce is part of a complex equation of expression, emotion and random material behaviour. These components at different levels are a constant presence in my workshop.
Conventional goldsmithing techniques in conjunction with an unconventional mixture of materials calls for an “inquisitive problem solving” attitude at the workbench.
This in turn opens new vistas of form and expression to be examined.
The challenge lies in incorporating enough of myself into this equation order to direct but not dictate the results.

Career

Exhibition

• 1999International Craft Exhibition
• 2000Urban Ascetism- Röhsska Museum
• 2001Bergen and Gallery RAM
• 2002Solo Olle Olsson-huset
• 2003SOFA; Chicago
• 2004Silver Trienal
• 2005”Swedish Style”
• 2006“Love Signs”
• 2007Solo “Views of Order” Gallery Platina
• 2008 ”Collect” Victoria and Albert Museum

Prize

• 1999Excellence Award
• 1999Åhléns Award for Design & Form
• 2008MADE BY: nominated for DESIGNU award

my idea comes from…….
Any thing hides a good form. I am making my pieces by the work of cutting off plastic goods.
Any object by being pieced can become wearable.
Things previously without connection to the body can become wearable to it by this simple operation.
goods change like this.
A lot of goods are comparatively near the body with having them in the hand.
But the distance with the body didn’t approach any further.
Such goods become like these.
I love to look for the goods for my pieces and make new forms out of objects used everyday.
It is happy to me if you could enjoy such a point of view when you saw my pieces.
Now,I have a pen with my hand.but when we see it the next time,it may be a neckchains!

Career

Exhibition

• 2008 Out of shell:recontextualizing the pearl in contemporary jewelry
• 2008TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM
• 2007space for your future - museum of contemporary art Tokyo
• 2007docomodake art exhibition
• 2007re-create
• 2007SCHMUCK’07
• 2006“”"JEWELRY HEROES”"” OONA
• 2006gallery duex poisson

The thing by which it is full of personal appearance, the thing thrown away as garbage, and things as daily necessaries to be used, such as a social phenomenon and a natural product…
How can I make these materials a jewelry?
I think on the theme of such a thing every day.

Career

Exhibition

• 2002 The Ueno Royal Museum
• 2002 LAPIN ET HALOT
• 2003 Aoyama Spiral
• 2003 The Museum of Art&Crafts-ITAMI
• 2004 Art Space Ryabina
• 2005 The Museum of Art&Crafts-ITAMI
• 2005 Gallery deux poissons
• 2006 Gallery Le Deco
• 2006 Gallery Revuri
• 2006 Round Exhibition / Culture Life Information Center SETAGAYA

Prize

• 2002Prize in Japan Jewelry Art Competition
• 2003Prize of umpire in Itami International Craft Exhibition Jewelry
• 2006Prize of in Itami international Craft Exhibition drink vessel

Jewelry about the interaction between man and nature.
Shaping the classical French gardens or forestry leave marks in nature, the shapes of trees and landscapes change. Then again the nature will renew itself, moss or mushrooms appear as soon as there is a chance. In my work I’m observing this symbiosis between man and nature. At their best they adapt to each other and make a beautiful match.
I play with contrasts like valuable against worthless, mathematical against free and associative. Also in my choice of materials I am searching for the borders between natural and artificial. For example in the series “Woodland” (2007) I combine my own designed “nature” with branches of birch, hazel, rosemary, and heather, as well as gemstones such as smoky quartz and aquamarine.
My work is inspired by love for the beauty in nature, and its strength comes from the necessity to visualise this beauty.

Career

Exhibition

• 2007solo「Woodland」 Galerie Louise Smit Amsterdam
• 2006solo Galleri Hnoss Gothenburg
• 2004solo「Substralia」 Galerie Louise Smit Amsterdam
• 2002solo「Peepnik」 Galleria Johan S. Helsinki
• 2002solo「Sights」 Galerie Oona Berlin
• 2002solo「Out of the Blue1」 Nida Artist House Nida
• 2002solo「Out of the Blue2」 Gintaro Museum Vilnius
• 2001solo「On the Way」 Rogaland Kunstsenter Stavanger
• 2001solo「Occupied」 Nida Artist House Nida
• 2000solo「 Spring Collection Galerie Louise Smit」 KunstRAI
• 2000solo「Spring Collection」 Galerie Louise Smit Amsterdam
• 1999solo「Mobile Park」 Sieger park Amsterdam

Prize

• 2007Highly Commended
• 2000Nomination Kunst aanmoedigingsprijs Amstelveen-prize
• 1997Nomination Gerrit Rietveld Academie-prize

I’m trying to take various motifs from nature and man-made when I design jewelry.
I’m making jewelry with enjoying how I express the inspiration I received at that time by my way.
I think about the concept and the design so that people who wear the work may become happy even a little feelings.

Career

Prize

• 2004Harry Winston prize of Graduate Exhibition
• 2006prize of Japan Jewelry Art Competition

The detailed texture of my jewelry is made by working on wax which is like candle wax. The fine figures are made one by one by hand.

I almost stop breathing while making because the delicate balance in the small world is the key. The textures that are born in the particular condition of the wax according to the temperature of the room of that time get together and shape my jewelry. Every piece with natural stones is an only one piece in the world because the settings are made according to the shape of the particular stones.

I carve the patterns on the pearls by hand. The little ones with faces are big eaters. You’d better watch out for them, otherwise they eats up all the sweets!

I will be glad if my mysterious jewelry becomes a tool for amusing communication between the wearer and somebody else.

Career

Exhibition

• 2004Gallery Wada Aoyama
• 2005Galerie Sofie Lachat Belgium
• 2005Arai Atelier Gallery Ebisu
• 2007hygge gallery Nakameguro

Prize

• 2005Bronze prize of Design 30th International pearl design contest