Roseanne Bartley

A Melbourne jeweller whose works in GKW are:

• 'Spring has sprung in QWERTY land'
• Seed pod necklace
• 'And rose buds are my favourite'

'This is a resting place for contemplation.'

This sentence has been given a new and surreptitious life in the necklace 'Seed Pod II'. It was a comment by Kevin Murray in response to my last exhibition 'Homage to QWERTY' (Linden Gallery, 1997).

The necklace is part of a series of work which examines the cycle of communication in craft. Comments left by viewers become the hidden message within a necklace. The word sequence of the sentence left, determined the sequence of the seed pods around the neck. This process intervenes in the conventional practice of producing, exhibiting, and viewing craft. As a jeweller I am interested in stimulating the subliminal communication between maker, object, wearer and viewer.

My work is composed of industrial parts from manual typewriters of the 1940s to 1960s. The striker keys from these typewriters are combined with botanical forms and text. The 'nature of communication' is embodied in flowers, grass and see pods. In 'Seed Pod Necklace' the striker keys form the seeds. When the letters are pressed into the skin, their message is revealed.

My work places with the life cycle of nature in the modern world. 'The old meets the new and is recast as the promise of future meetings with other readers.