Ashley Buchanan- Johnson City TN

My work focuses on image, pattern and decoration in order to reference ornamentation and historical jewelry. It is my intention to challenge the conventions of handmade jewelry through the use of inexpensive materials and new approaches to design and surface decoration. I am interested in a reality that exists through images and representations and how the appearance of an object can substitute for the original. Utilizing silhouettes allows me to reduce these images down to their most basic form and reference the history of jewelry with a clean, contemporary aesthetic. This is reinforced through the use of powder coating, a process commonly used on an industrial scale to coat or color large metal objects with a durable, uniform finish.