Now Showing: All Wrapped Up for Christmas

The Foundry’s final exhibition of 2008 is full of festive cheer. On show until the New Year, we have Anthea Landon’s eclectic mix of media complimented by Janice Cooper’s unique, hand-crafted jewellery.

Anthea Landon

Installations are usually site specific and can be commissioned as this piece has been, especially for our Christmas Exhibition.

“This installation was inspired by a gift which was boxed so beautifully that I valued the box more than the expensive gift.Since then I have, unwittingly collected boxes of all sizes, from jewellery boxes, through glove boxes, stationery boxes to coffers and blanket chests.Like many people and particularly children, I enjoy boxes and the anticipation of opening the box.”

“This installation is offered to the gaze of art lovers;it may be perceived as fascinating or not.It can change the passive audience to active minds.Each spectator experiences it differently.In the midst of it all we will make an association with the image(s) which will be a reflection of our own lives.We can only draw on previous experiences - which are peculiar to the individual.”

“The feelings it triggers may be interesting or it may defy description.Something which is beyond symbolic order cannot always be expressed or shared in words.The possibility of experiencing it without words and sharing it physically is provided by the carefully considered form of the installation.”

“The view is from the outside but you know there is an inside and it is here where there is pretence. It poses such questions as what? and why? It provokes thought.”

Janice Cooper

Janice has worked for more than 30 years in retail jewellery during which time fashion jewellery became increasingly popular. She began her career making items with commercially produced beads but was inspired to begin making polymer clay jewellery after attending a specialist exhibition.

“The bright colours and unusual effects produced with this medium are the perfect complement to today’s fashions and many pieces are ‘one-offs’, in fact no two pieces are exactly alike. Some of the techniques used are borrowed from millefiore glass making but there ends the similarity.”

Janice is a member of the British Polymer Clay Guild and is based in the Midlands Region.

Please contact The Foundry with any sales enquiries