The Art of Jewellery Making with Machi de Waard
Join jewellery artist Machi de Waard as she shares her journey, creative inspirations, and live demonstrations of her craft.
What to Expect:
– Discover how Machi began her career and became a full-time jeweller.
– Explore the inspirations behind her award-winning designs.
– Gain insight into the craftsmanship involved in creating a single piece of jewellery, with a live demonstration of tools and techniques.
– Learn about the making of works that earned Machi recognition from the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council this year.
– Interactive Q&A session.
Machi de Waard is a jeweller with over 17 years of experience and recognised with Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council awards. Machi’s work draws inspiration from twentieth-century modern art, featuring bold, abstract forms and a playful edge. Learn more about Machi de Waard below.
This event is free to attend with no booking necessary.
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Machi de Waard is a designer/jeweller who has been making modernist jewellery in silver and gold in her studio in Reading, Berkshire for more than 17 years. In 2021, her book Silver Jewellery Making, written with fellow jeweller Janet Richardson, was published by award- winning craft publisher Search Press. Combining her studio practice with teaching, Machi teaches jewellery making in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. In 2023, Machi was awarded a Masters in Jewellery and Metal from the prestigious Royal College of Art. In 2024, Machi received two awards from the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council, the “jewellery Oscars”, for her work of six hand-scored miniature silver vessels.
Machi’s work is informed by the visual language of twentieth century modern art. Distilling the abstract forms and clean lines of modern art into her own self-imposed limited palette, Machi’s work focuses on visually and physically strong shapes such as circles. She finds creativity through restraint, making iterations of her chosen shapes and varying details. Machi has a drive towards design that is clean and crisp combined with a desire to continue to push craftsmanship to higher levels. But it’s not all serious: a lightness of touch is present; perhaps an unexpected detail, a spot of optical illusion or a miniature scale to invite approachability. Although Machi’s work uses quite a formal visual language, there’s an edge of playfulness that entices the viewer to come closer. My handmade pieces invite the viewer to handle them, feel their weight, touch their edges and explore their details.