Alister Yiap
Western Australia
“Power Puff Girls Brooch” – Circular Brooch Hand Fabricated Sterling Silver, Glass, Resin, Synthetic Ruby, Sapphires, Emeralds and Black Diamond.
I was excited to be paired with Katia, who is a first time participating in The Contemporary Jewelry Exchange. Initially Katia was concerned as she was just a student, but I enjoyed the playful approach we took in developing our exchange pieces. Katia and I conversed over messenger and came up with a theme of ‘Power Plastic’ where our constraints were to produce a brooch for each other and to utilise plastic in our work and be based around pop culture.
The brooch uses primitive construction and fabrication methods, featuring simple cabochon bezel settings and twisted wire boarder and playful elements such as glitter and glass cabochons often used in craft pieces all link back to the innocent theme of power puff girls. Its arrangement is likened to a pen annular Celtic cloak brooch often associated with super heroes, warriors, soldiers and Vikings; exploring notions of strength, power and pride.
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Katia Rabey
Israel
MMPM – Marilyn Monroe Power Ranger rotating brooch. Silver, steel, plastic.
I was at first a little intimidated after being paired with Alister – him, being a jewelry pro and a public artist, working both in small and large scale, and me being – well, a student. But we came up with a fun topic for our work: “Power Plastic” – we wanted to explore the possibilities of plastic as a precious material and also dedicate a piece to a certain figure of pop-culture.
“Make me an X about Y” – that’s how we decided to shape our requests for each other, where X is a piece of jewelry and Y – something from contemporary pop-culture. I asked Alister to make me a brooch about Power Puff Girls, which, in my opinion, he performed with great wit, humor and professionalism. He, for his turn, has asked for a Power Rangers related brooch. It was a challenge for me, as I never watched this show before, but I explored the topic and ended up with a rotating circular brooch, where the red Power Ranger is turning (literally!) into Marilyn Monroe, the icon of pop-culture in general.
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Alister Yiap is a Perth-based design artist who works in a number of creative fields including Art, Fashion, Jewellery and Industrial design. Yiap specialises in custom bespoke pieces, embedding a distinctive geometric signature aesthetic with a contemporary approach, clean lines and refined attention to detail. For private commissions, please send us an enquiry here.