Architecture and Jewellery Talk

Glass the Continual Surprise Leading architect Eva Jiřičná CBE RA discusses her experience of working on the design of The William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2008.

Eva realised the project in partnership with a team of specialist consultants, educators, conservators and curators, and it now displays over 3,500 jewels from the V&A’s jewellery collection, one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world.

The talk will take place at the Goldsmiths' Centre and forms part of a series of events linked to A Sense of Jewellery, rediscovering British jewellery design from the work of forty artists from forty years: a new exhibition currently on view at the Centre until 19th November, featuring major public and private loans and available for viewings that evening.

Exhibition design in a field of jewellery has been part of the consideration of the exhibition. The exhibition curators worked with architecture practice, Brocklehurst Architects, and young architectural graduate Michael Zieja and fabricators Barney Hill to consider how good design and construction can help interpretation of jewellery in formal settings.

The designers worked with the Reception area of a busy building that houses jewellery workshops, training courses and events and created a design that allows close observation of some forty five works of modern jewels, and expresses the material qualities of creativity and craftsmanship that they display.

Masters of jewellery design such as Gerda Flockinger CBE and Wendy Ramshaw CBE are joined by younger designers such as Andrew Lamb and Jo Hayes-Ward. Glass is an inevitable and functional part of displaying jewellery: Jiřičná brings her knowledge of this material from her native Czech republic, together with her design skills, to create award winning solutions for museum clients internationally.