The Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award 2006

Stephen Gallagher

Artist statement

The Elizabethan period was a time of excess and setting the trends of the day was Queen Elizabeth I; richly embroidered textiles were de rigeur and jewellery was found upon the body in profusion. Elizabethan surface decoration plays an important part within my work. I adapt images of floral motifs and accessories, and translate them through the use of fine stitches on heat-treated, hydraulic pressed, stainless steel mesh. This is interwoven with South Sea pearls, Mediterranean red coral, black coral from China, bakelite sequins from Nigeria, the traditional materials of pure gold and sterling silver, combined with the industrial material of acrylic caulk sealant. Through the technique of ‘shagging’ – the extrusion of acrylic caulk sealant through mesh – I fuse the precious and the non-precious to form eclectic pseudo-Elizabethan comical derivatives of historical jewellery to delight.