Dalziel + Scullion RSA

Historically, the act of adornment; wearing jewellery; a badge or an amulet, was a means to tell the world who we are, what we stand for, or whom we would like to be. These relatively small objects had the potential to speak of large issues. The works in this collection, incorporate found materials that appear to have little monetary value, shells, quills, minerals etc, yet they demonstrate the rich biodiversity needed by the other species that humanity lives alongside. These works distil thoughts and ideas into a badge of affiliation, a momenta mori for a world whose biodiversity is reducing year on year.
QUARTZ RINGS
The island of Lewis is a great resource for stone, it includes some of the oldest rock on earth, specifically the three-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss complex, a crystalline rock that appears granite-like, but contain marble, quartzite and mica schist. In this collection of rings, shards of quartz have been fashioned into wearable pieces. Appearing almost as miniature landscapes in their own right, and reminders the tumultuous upheavals the earth has undergone in the deep time of geology. In one ring, a pistachio green veneer of epidote can be seen, this mineral seeped into a fracture millions of years ago and solidified under extreme heat.