Non-precious materials

Figure 1 - Murphy. K. 2001. Bangles. Resin (blue and green), Fabric and Foil

Non-precious materials can be chartered as cheap materials or non-precious, due to the long history of precious jewellery in the western world, traditional materials were combined with the perceived intrinsic value. The rise of art- jewellery with non-precious materials has changed the innovation of jewellery, as well as materials such as recycling materials, refractory metal and changes in education. These changes have adopted a new personal concept for art-jewellers, as they are able to express their own creativity in contemporary art-jewellery.

Non-precious materials have paved the way for Kathie Murphy, who is using plastic resin for her art-jewellery as a way of making art-jewellery cheaper, richer with colour and patterns as seen in figure 1. Kathie's art-jewellery has inspired me, to use her techniques on my art-jewellery work by applying a clear resin material to create decorative transparency on my jewellery pieces.