BETH ESSEX
Event Date: Apr 11- June 28: Manchester Craft & Deisgn Centre
Beth Essex was selected by Manchester Craft and Design Centre as the winner of thier second Graduate Exhibition Award.
Chosen from Manchester Metropolitan University’s 3-D Design Course degree show in 2007, Essex will show her work in a three month solo exhibition as part of the centre’s exhibition programme.
Essex’s range of beautifully delicate jewellery combines textiles, porcelain and metal, influenced by her research into family heirlooms. Keepsakes are given special care by their owners and elicit a personal response from them; a selection of her own family’s keepsakes has formed an influential part of her practice.
Integral to Beth’s work is the personal value she places on the traditional textiles skills that have been passed down to her from her mother. She crochets, knots and manipulates the materials to form ‘drawn’ brooches, bangles and rings. Beth is also concerned about the attitudes and environmental impact of the ‘throw away’ culture and has worked with ideas surrounding heirlooms and valuing what you own.
Since graduating, Beth has shown at New Designers, Business Design Centre, London, at The Hub, Sleaford, Lincolnshire and at The Platform Gallery, Clitheroe In Lancashire. She was also commissioned to produce a selction of gold and silver buttons for textile artist Makeba Lewis shown at The Crafts Arts Centre, Farnham in Surrey .