Five Minutes with... Melinda Young
We spend five minutes with Sydney based contemporary jeweller Melinda Young
discussing the processes and motivations
behind her work featured in the group
exhibition Autumnal Colours - now showing
at JamFactory Seppeltsfield.
Photos supplied by the artist.
How would you describe your approach to making and what methods and techniques do you employ?
My approach to making is directed by materials and the narratives and connections they provide, both real and imagined. My practice is split between research-based conceptually driven work that sits on the borders of wearability, and pieces that are made simply for the pleasure of being worn and enjoyed. The works in Autumnal Colours fall into the latter category. They are a joyous response to the colour and texture of the season.
Increasingly I have been working in a fairly intuitive and low-tech way. I like to sit with materials and see what they choose to tell me. Sometimes the intervention is extremely minimal like simply adding a hole or a string, and at other times the process is lengthy and complex, rendering the original material unrecognisable.
Working with a range of materials often leads me to learning new skills, which I enjoy. My favoured techniques are drawn from a range of disciplines including jewellery, textiles, basketry and joinery.
“Increasingly I have been working in a fairly intuitive and low-tech way… Sometimes the intervention is extremely minimal like simply adding a hole or a string, and at other times the process is lengthy and complex, rendering the original material unrecognisable.”
Rocks and shells collected over the years.
The artist, Melinda Young in her studio.
How do you go about sourcing and selecting the eclectic range of found and foraged materials for your jewellery designs?
I collect materials from a wide range of sources, many are gifted, second hand, recycled or foraged. Flea markets are a treasure trove and I have an incredible collection of ephemera from Reverse Garbage in Sydney. I also collect from the natural environment; plastics and driftwood washed up on the shoreline and ground fall foliage. When I travel I frequently return home with a case bulging with strange treasure (most recently, rope from Vietnam).
My collections are catalogued in my studio. Some materials are used immediately, however others may sit for many years before they are finally used. There is no real method to collecting, things either speak to me or I collect with intention to fit a concept or a specific methodology for a body of work.
To say that my work is eclectic is very true. Since my days as a student my use of materials has always been diverse, but the themes that reappear include the landscape, the natural world or its unnatural counterpart, texture and colour. Particular shapes re-assert themselves and the quiet rhythms of repetition are constants, underpinning both process and outcome.
“Ultimately, I hope that my work will start conversations and that perhaps those conversations will enable people to make connections with each other or the broader
issues that underpin the work.”
What inspires and influences you most in your practice?
Being in the world and the sheer joy of making – the thinking and doing.
Not a day in my life goes by without making.
Tracelines – Riverbed Neckpiece, 2019.
River to the ocean flows; 2020.
What ideas and concepts do you instil in your jewellery and what feelings and experiences do you hope they impart on the wearer?
Ultimately, I hope that my work will start conversations and that perhaps those conversations will enable people to make connections with each other or the broader issues that underpin the work. This may be a sense of wonder for the natural world, a shared concern for the environment, an opportunity to express an emotion or share an idea. It might even be as simple as a shared appreciation for earrings or colour.
How has your practice changed or evolved since you first began producing jewellery
in 1997?
I would say that the most significant transition is the shift from conceptual concerns about the interior and exterior landscapes of the female body, to reflecting on the wider landscape and places that the body inhabits.
That said, I have been making jewellery for as long as I can remember and strangely my work now speaks directly to the first piece I made at age 4 – a string of rocks with holes collected on the beach at Weymouth in England, just before we relocated to Australia.
A gradual return to the beginning, which hopefully isn’t the end.
Lace and pearls.