For decades the American jeweller Arline Fisch has taught generations of young artist jewellers and been at the forefront of American contemporary jewellery. She was the pioneer in adapting textile techniques to metals. She is particularly known for her light and airy knitted pieces. In the 1970s she worked in silver or gold wire, and from the 1980s in colourful coated copper wire.

Arline Fisch’s interest in textiles goes back to her childhood, and was revived when she first began to teach in 1957. By the mid-seventies, she was exploring the boundaries of jewellery and clothing with her knitted, braided or woven body adornments or wearable body art. At first she knitted the wires by hand but later used the loom. In 1975 she wrote a book, which has since been reprinted, explaining the various techniques she applies and has become renowned for: "Textile Techniques in Metal for Jewelers, Sculptors and Textile Artists" ( New York 1975).

Fisch travelled extensively and her first inspiration was Egyptian jewellery, but even more important was her fascination for Pre-Columbian textiles. She studied cultures and their artefacts worldwide, however the Mediterranean cultures, Viking and Celtic metalwork and the Elizabethan ruff collars caught her interest.

In her monograph, the introduction to this body of work titled ‘woven squares’ describes the thoughts behind the shape and pattern: “Interlacing is an elemental structural system which includes both weaving and plaiting. The simple over/under movement of separate elements produces form and pattern simultaneously. Squares are a natural result of weaving on a loom or of plaiting in a ziz-zag pattern.”