Kirsten Junor

Copper sheet hand sawn to create shield shape, layers of kiln fired liquid enamel to build up colour layers, scraffito'd words and line work. 3 piece silver chain rolled then soldered to hold in place.

My work hasn’t closed – I didn’t stay home - everyone close to me were at home – I wasn’t happy – I felt at risk – I felt like we didn’t need to be opened – but from remaining open, and remaining open to ideas - came an opportunity, a need – this resulted in what was an remarkable, exhausting, rewarding few weeks that bought such kindness out of people and community. we did good – we helped in this shit time and we helped good people I wanted to be in isolation – I could see the benefits for all – but I’m one of the lucky ones to still have a job – a job that means I can still afford to make. In my mind I have been working on a series of club badges for a long time, long before Covid-19, the result of collecting club badges for ever – studying the shiny glass colours and small designs – these little insignia adding to my curiosity in enamelling. But are club badges strictly a jewellery item? – club badges identify and show where you choose to belong, they try to fit a lot of information in one small badge – club location, club name, club type, club colours…. In the shapes of my pieces I wanted to reflect the almost heraldic shapes of this type of badge – the inscription “ in isolation we trust” conveying the club that we were all, everywhere, members of without even knowing we’d joined or wanted to be a part of. We could trust isolation more than anything – a virus – our leaders – it has become all of our club.