Last Wednesday I attended the opening of the Weeds jewellery collective exhibition ‘re-Production’ at Masterworks Gallery along with a whole lot of other Auckland Jewellery Geeks. Here I noticed two most definite examples of Jewelleryness happening amongst jewellers.

The Weeds jewellery collective – Fran Allison, Andrea Daly, Shelley Norton and formerly Lisa Walker – have been having awesome exhibitions in NZ and around the world for years (none of these are documented online – I am trying to solve this problem for them).

Weeds at Masterworks Gallery. Image by Allan MacDonald

For this exhibition, Fran Allison made a series of ring stamps with pause, play, fast forward and power on symbols, and a large stamp allegedly containing a bunch of symbols a NZ fashion designer had appropriated in her fashion jewellery range. This context was of little matter to us of course because all the jewellers present just wanted to get a stamp. Immediately!

An hour or so later I decided to be badarse and get a stamp on my neck because just having a stamp on your arm was now so common. Dangerous jewellery!

Stamps as “Contemporary Jewellery, because tattoos hurt” Ben Lignel/AJF.

I love stamps. Stamps and stickers. Maybe it links back to when I went to the doctor or dentist as a small child and you got rewarded with a happy face stamp or a gold star sticker.  That stamp stampede was Evidence of Jewelleryness #1. Here is #2:

One of our (MIT) students Jess Dew found a roll of orange fluorescent ‘Frying & Grilling’ stickers at ‘Super Trash’ in New North Road and just had to buy them to bring to the opening because she new I would love them and because they rocked. Of course I had to have one immediately!  Pretty soon most of the jewellers in the room were sporting a Frying and Grilling sticker because jewellers know a good sticker when they see one and because jewellers love getting in a free sticker club.

Double free clubs! Stamps and Stickers. Jewelleryness on toast!

A few of the non jewellers in the gallery also got a stamp and/or a sticker, but the uptake for these people was more hesitant. They do not really understand this phenomenon.