Clare Robb

As a jewellery and object designer-maker, my pieces as retainers of memory are made meaningful by their collection and gathering as small, discrete, often found, items.

Q&A

What craft do you work with?

As a jewellery and object designer-maker, my pieces as retainers of memory are made meaningful by their collection and gathering as small, discrete, often found, items. My practice, which has evolved over the past 5 years, embodies wearable and sculptural pieces. Each is conceived to reconnect its audience with such things as a sense of place, nostalgia, and the human body itself; matters which are easily neglected, but which are intrinsic to our everyday lives.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

Objects trigger memories and transform recollections into palpable experiences, particularly if the artefacts constitute natural materials. My work acknowledges the mundane- the found object. Collecting is a means of expression, of selfhood brought about by selection, which is presented as miscellanea for viewers, inviting them to consider the contents of their own ‘curiosity cabinet’. My practice incorporates materials such as stone, wood, and bone. Working with bone is especially significant as it is a medium that is consistently overlooked in contemporary design. Bone is a sustainable resource connected to human, animal, and land.

How do you start your creative process?

I consider ways which the objects collected from our surroundings can link our identities to a sense of that place. These objects- shells, stones, and even discarded belongings- begin to give body to a landscape’s complex historical, artistic, and social realities through their small forms.
I collect objects which I feel reflect the places I visit and invite others to join me in collating objects which communicated their experience. I have been organising Zoom workshops, where we have an informal making session with the materials, discuss how our experiences aligned and diverged and begin to explore the factual, perceptive, and social parallels between our visited locations and whether physically being there is integral, or the complex biographies of place can be communicated through these
collected objects. A desire to connect with others during lockdown has become integral to this project.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

My workspace at the moment, is amorphous. Most days it is the landscape surrounding my house- the rugged rock pools and grassy Marram dunes of the beach to the south, or the familiar, sheltering woods to the North. Some days it is the small desk within my room which holds all my treasured jewellery and silversmithing tools- my Dremel in particular I couldn’t live without for it’s handiness when altering found objects like sea glass and stones. I am looking to rent a studio space in Dundee, near my home, later this month- a more permanent residence to put down roots.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I began exploring natural dye techniques last year, using berries and plants foraged from around my home- in the hope that this would distill the colours of the landscape, and perhaps therefore the complex feelings of belonging and nostalgia I found there, within my work. I would love to develop these skills and apply them to in-person thought sessions where fellow collectors can bring their finds and share their ideas on a sense of place and what drives them to keep filling their pockets, with me.

What professional dream do you have?

Busy hands will allow these conversations to foster and flow and to that end, I would like to develop the practical side of my workshops- whilst maintaining the focus on found, natural materials and their significance.