Rachel Butlin

Rachel Butlin seeks to challenge the concepts of contemporary interactive and wearable jewellery producing a range of high end, mixed material wearable pieces. She loves to challenge the way in which people perceive a piece, by creating small scale sculpture that can be worn on the body, in a way chosen by the wearer. Carefully considering material combination and placement, her work often explores bespoke materials, evoking curiosity between the piece and the wearer themselves.

Intrigued by Japanese culture and tradition, the art of placement and cultural colour palettes remain central in designs. Rachel's inspiration is drawn from Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, which focuses on harmony, colour use, rhythm and elegantly simple design. She is also fascinated by Japanese traditional architecture, unique characteristics bringing together natural materials and colours, with dark and bright contrasts. This is reflected in her playful and detailed approach to design and the making process. She gathers materials in a collection, waiting to explore them through combination and placement, in a 3D drawing process.

Drawing with materials is an essential part of her practice, with linear forms, featuring strongly alongside geometric shapes and spaces. These ideas and themes are explored through bold strikes of colour and simple lines, brought together to create statement brooches, rings and neckpieces. By stacking, layering and placing components together, she finds different ways of constructing pieces using traditional jewellery techniques such as setting and riveting. This process allows her to explore and explode original thoughts, creating new ideas from one original starting point.