Modern Paper Maché Jewelry by Hilary Bravo
Hilary Bravo of Hilary Bravo Jewellery introduced herself to me via the All Things Paper Facebook page and I'm so glad she did. She's a prolific artist in Devon, England who often relies on inspiration from her travels - her own sketches, abstract paintings, and photos - to create wearable modern art.
Hilary enjoys exploring, discovering, and capturing the essence of each place she visits, whether it's London, Paris, Rome, Capri, or Pompeii. Back in the studio she selects a painting to be made into jewelry - first she strengthens it with layers of paper and glue, cuts it into fragments, and seals the edges with copper or aluminum or sets the pieces in pre-formed bases. Resin protects and enhances the beautiful images.
Hilary's jewelry has been sold in large and small galleries, including The Guggenheim in New York, as well as via her Etsy shop [where a 50% off Spring Sale is in effect for 2021].
She's not at all reluctant to experiment with new effects and works a wide variety of materials into her art pieces... "beeswax, acrylic inks, gouache, watercolours, pencils, oil pastels, gold, silver, and copper leaf, metal foils, pigments, marble dust, chalk, tissue and tracing paper, plus interesting commercially produced paper and found papers - Italian sweet wrappers/ metro tickets, etc." That's quite a list!
Recently Hilary has been making fossil-like paper maché beads from Tyvek and iridescent tissue paper.
This paper maché bowl may have started out quite simply...
but the sophisticated end result shows flashes of turquoise and gold leaf.
Hilary enjoys exploring, discovering, and capturing the essence of each place she visits, whether it's London, Paris, Rome, Capri, or Pompeii. Back in the studio she selects a painting to be made into jewelry - first she strengthens it with layers of paper and glue, cuts it into fragments, and seals the edges with copper or aluminum or sets the pieces in pre-formed bases. Resin protects and enhances the beautiful images.
Hilary's jewelry has been sold in large and small galleries, including The Guggenheim in New York, as well as via her Etsy shop [where a 50% off Spring Sale is in effect for 2021].
She's not at all reluctant to experiment with new effects and works a wide variety of materials into her art pieces... "beeswax, acrylic inks, gouache, watercolours, pencils, oil pastels, gold, silver, and copper leaf, metal foils, pigments, marble dust, chalk, tissue and tracing paper, plus interesting commercially produced paper and found papers - Italian sweet wrappers/ metro tickets, etc." That's quite a list!
Recently Hilary has been making fossil-like paper maché beads from Tyvek and iridescent tissue paper.
This paper maché bowl may have started out quite simply...
but the sophisticated end result shows flashes of turquoise and gold leaf.
Hilary has embraced social media and is always happy to share her knowledge and ideas. Active on Facebook, she's also made a number of YouTube paper maché technique videos.
Edit March 2021: Visit Hilary's Etsy shop where a springtime sale is in effect. All listings are 50% off!
All Things Paper is an AWIN (Etsy) affiliate.
That bowl is amazing. I love that she uses so many different techniques and materials. The jewelry is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWow, incredible pieces, thank you for introducing us to her Ann.
ReplyDeleteSo pretty! The jewelry is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI wish to follow in your footsteps. I love your work, so I have "liked" you on Facebook. Hopefully I won't miss a thing.
ReplyDelete