Jacqueline Mina is a goldsmith and jeweller, born in Buckinghamshire in 1942. Mina attended the Royal College of Art in South Kensington in the 1960s where she began designing and making jewellery. She exhibited widely from the 1970s onwards, including in an exhibition in 1978 at the Argenta Gallery, and in a solo exhibition in 1986 at the V&A. In 2000 Mina received the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize and in 2011 she was awarded an O.B.E. for her services to art.
Mina’s work is noted for its innovative use of gold and other precious metals. Her jewellery characteristically experiments with surface texture to enhance the lustrous quality of the metal. Her pieces also push material boundaries by using unconventional combinations, such as platinum with gold inlay. Her skills as a goldsmith are tested by the complexity of her designs, which are all handmade.
Mina has highlighted the importance of the human body as an inspiration, in reference to the prevalence of figurative motifs in her work, she notes that: “my sporadic enjoyment of life-drawing underpins my visual language.” Although some of Mina’s pieces are irregular in shape, they are all polished for comfortable wear.
This sketchbook by Jacqueline Mina contains jewellery designs and ephemera including newspaper and magazine clippings and photographs. The sketches and clippings show Mina’s wide-ranging research and diverse sources of influence, the impact of which can be seen in her finished works. Together with examples of jewellery by Mina in the V&A’s collection, this sketchbook documents her work from inspiration to completed object.