Research and Making
The collaborating artists will curate source material for this project in an online reference website. The website consists of individual web pages, one for each piece, that provides source material through links to existing international archives. Once a work is made the image of the final enamel brooch will be added to each page. The website is not a primary archive but a research tool that brings together the personal histories and artefacts which the artists will interpret in order to make each brooch for the wreath.
The artists will design and produce flower and leaf forms that reference the collated online material. They will select elements from the material provided, such as personal objects, letters, photographs or ephemera to incorporate into each enamel flower or leaf forms. The artists have collected various botanical forms that reference the sites of World War One and home.
The online reference website allows the artists to access the material collated to make photo transfers or negatives for photo-etching and transferring imagery onto metal or enamel. The sheet metal is cut, filed, etched, formed and joined in some cases and then enamelled to create individual three-dimensional flower and leaf forms. The artists enamel the surfaces on each piece to fuse the source material and achieve unique material qualities.
Each completed piece takes the form of a brooch that will be attached into position on the wreath form. The photograph of the brooch will be included on the website to allow the final pieces to be linked back to the source material used to make them. In this way, each piece will connect back to the individual story and its transformation into an enamelled brooch. A selection of these works will also be used to create a number of full-colour printed plates for exhibiting with the wreath form.
The online material and the enamel flower and leaf forms will be drawn together to form the contents of a digital artist book.