Bangle thumbnail 1
Bangle thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery

Bangle

ca. 1978 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

David Watkins began his career as a sculptor and jazz pianist. In the sixties he made his first attempts in jewellery and in the seventies he pioneered the use of computers as a design tool. Music and sculpture feed into his work, which is all about form, rhythm and colour, recently developing into abstract symbols and metaphors. Watkins' oeuvre developed from early miniature sculptures into large-scale wearable objects intended to interact with the body. The concept of art for the body is deeply embedded in his work. Watkins remains firmly committed to modernity.

Watkins explores a wide range of materials, from paper and gold to industrial materials such as steel, aluminium and titanium. He stretches them to their aesthetic and technical limits. For him machine technologies bestow beauty, thus traditional craft and modern technologies can coexist without loss to one another.

In 1978, David Watkins and Wendy Ramshaw became Artists in Residence at the Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth (now Curtin University) sponsored by the Australian Crafts Council.

During this period Watkins pursued new work in steel and gold with a primitive element. This was expressed through the use of blacksmithing techniques, recalling his family roots in the Black Country. He was fascinated by the possibilities offered by forging, flattening and thinning steel under the hammer. As in this bangle a single piece of steel could change in thickness and profile, or form natural curves. The metal surface had an ancient feel, left partially raw, or through filing, refining and inlaying it with gold. The processes of heating and re-heating, working and re-working endowed the pieces with the feel of preciousness through labour.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Blued steel inlaid with gold
Brief description
Bangle, blued steel inlaid with gold, by David Watkins, England, 1978
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 8cm
  • Depth: 0.2cm
Gallery label
10. BANGLE, mild steel inlaid with gold, England; 1979 Designed and made by David Watkins Museum No. M.56-1981(07/1994)
Summary
David Watkins began his career as a sculptor and jazz pianist. In the sixties he made his first attempts in jewellery and in the seventies he pioneered the use of computers as a design tool. Music and sculpture feed into his work, which is all about form, rhythm and colour, recently developing into abstract symbols and metaphors. Watkins' oeuvre developed from early miniature sculptures into large-scale wearable objects intended to interact with the body. The concept of art for the body is deeply embedded in his work. Watkins remains firmly committed to modernity.

Watkins explores a wide range of materials, from paper and gold to industrial materials such as steel, aluminium and titanium. He stretches them to their aesthetic and technical limits. For him machine technologies bestow beauty, thus traditional craft and modern technologies can coexist without loss to one another.

In 1978, David Watkins and Wendy Ramshaw became Artists in Residence at the Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth (now Curtin University) sponsored by the Australian Crafts Council.

During this period Watkins pursued new work in steel and gold with a primitive element. This was expressed through the use of blacksmithing techniques, recalling his family roots in the Black Country. He was fascinated by the possibilities offered by forging, flattening and thinning steel under the hammer. As in this bangle a single piece of steel could change in thickness and profile, or form natural curves. The metal surface had an ancient feel, left partially raw, or through filing, refining and inlaying it with gold. The processes of heating and re-heating, working and re-working endowed the pieces with the feel of preciousness through labour.
Bibliographic reference
Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, 'David Watkins, Artist in Jewellery', Stuttgart 2008
Collection
Accession number
M.56-1981

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Record createdJanuary 10, 2008
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