Moving from one brilliant glass cabinet to the next, the range of fine silver and enamel objects is prodigious, ranging from the innovative to the traditional.
An exercise in anticlastic raising leads Jenny Edge to form sculptural configurations, like the elegant brass, that are inventive and anything but utilitarian. The intriguing Moebius Strip, a one-sided continuous surface formed by twisting a long narrow band though 180 degrees joined at either end, is used for her silver bangles. Next to her decanter labels and her silver bangles is Sally Spencer. She uses Precious Metal Clay: micron-sized particles of silver in a non-toxic organic binder, a plastic-like material with the consistency of clay that is burnt away, leaving striking rings and pendants notably the one embedded with an amethyst zirconia.
Well known for her trademark - detached skeletal fish - Stella Campion's radiant chased beaker; guilded within, and decorated with avocet, those elegant wading birds. Still in contemporary mode Hester Robinson's pair of water jugs would grace any table while her bangles, stamped outside with "I wanna hold your hand" and other song titles, bring a delightful note to the proceedings.
If you want delicacy, take the flower and dragonfly made of silver mesh resting on the lily pad made by Claire Porter, or Ian Miller's traditional, crafted silver Footed Strawberry Dish lined with gold and his facetted Large Hexagonal Vase, ideal for roses. Or go to the Stone Age Venus Earrings or the medieval Black Cross of Abingdon with Jeffrey Wallis's replica jewellery inspired by archaeological finds.
d=3,3,1Enamel plays a major, elegant, part in the exhibition, with Margaret England's green, yellow and white flower necklace that took her a year to make. Tutor Rosemary Zeeman, an expert technician and teacher, creates a rippling effect, letting the metal wires run where they will in her modern pendant suspended by her chain with a matching ring in shades of aquamarine, while one of her students, Dick Dendy, displays his enamel on copper plaques, House with Trees and Castle with Tree, in the style of Clarice Cliff.
It is a daunting to think that the fine jewellers and silversmiths who have come together in Woodstock represent but a fraction of the members in and around Oxford shown on Jasso's map. The society, happily housed in a converted barn at Peach Croft Farm, Abingdon, is open to the public in Art Weeks.
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