Manon van Kouswijk's Paper Pearls series began in the early 2000s, and has become an enduring favourite by this thoughtful artist.
Made of paper stickers on cotton thread, the Paper Pearls ask us to consider jewellery as not necessarily forever, but as something ephemeral and subject to change, just like the rest of our lives.
Each piece is handmade, and hangs to approximately 25cm. With careful wear and storage, these pieces can last for years.
Manon van Kouswijk is a Dutch artist and contemporary jeweller who lives and works in Melbourne. Manon likes to think that it’s possible to reinvent jewellery, despite the fact that its archetypal forms and motifs haven’t fundamentally changed throughout its long history. She views these archetypes as templates that she uses for her translations of the jewellery types she works from (for example the beaded necklace). The traces of the making process are often visible in Manon’s work. The imperfection of the handmade, present in marks of fingerprints and moulds, is an integral part of the objects. While originating from a conceptual approach to making at the same time her works embrace the sensual qualities of jewellery objects in the use of colour, their weight, sound, rhythm and material expression.
