One argument for or against whether a contemporary jewellery object is authentically made is whether that work is identifiable as a product of the cultural movement extant at the time of its making. As digital contemporary jewellery objects, my practice must engage with the community experience of living in the digital age. To this end, I examined different sociocultural settings where 3D-printed jewellery could be meaningful. The idea of storytelling through objects, such as marionettes or puppets, particularly resonated with me.
Finger puppets are not jewellery in the traditional sense of the word. But because they are worn on the tip of the finger, and in keeping with the ambitions of contemporary jewellery making, I stretch the definition of wearable jewellery for the sake of exploration and meaning-making.
I created five finger puppet characters, one for every finger of the hand. The shapes are abstracted from vaguely recognisable forms, like the horns of a bull and the ears of a cat. The vaguely animal-like puppets are reminiscent of those puppets that would have been used to act out the animal characters in Aesop's fables. Because the story they tell is a present-day story, their shapes are also inspired by digital symbols, icons and emojis. Their shapes are a clear reference to current cultural practices.
On display are five puppet characters, each interpreted in three distinct forms. The first takes the shape of a traditional ring. The second includes an attached finger cap that also functions as a display podium. The third is composed of fine, vermicelli-like cylinders that give the pieces a soft, textured appearance.
