Participants (see their HS progress)
- Antonia Boyle
- Aphra Cheesman
- Nina van Duijnhoven
- Jack Hadley
- Fran Leitch
- Nikki Perry
- Amelia Rothwell
- Mia Straka
- Simon Swale
- Susan Videler
- Michelle Wilkinson
- Macarena Bernal
HS6 collaboration video work
WELCOME TO HANDSHAKE 6 (HS6), 2020 – 2021/22
The HS6 two-year programme package provided emerging jewellery artists with a unique opportunity to develop skills through masterclasses, mentoring and work development that entails experimentation and exhibiting. Iris Eichenberg (US) handpicked twelve talented artists and matched them with recommended mentors, who provided regular feedback and support throughout the two-year programme. Iris Eichenberg came in 2019 to Auckland and conducted a masterclass with HS6 artists that set off processes for various conceptual and design toolsets, approaches, and opportunities. Her public lecture at Objectspace, Auckland attracted a full house of enthusiasts.
Despite the challenges posed by Covid that stopped all in our tracks, each HS6 artist could continue online and extend their research, experimentation, and development, assisted by their assigned mentors who provided regular guidance. The first exhibition opportunity was pre-Covid and curated by Weasel Gallery, Hamilton (now rebranded as Laree Payne Gallery). The HS6 artists had during Covid the opportunity to showcase their work at various exhibitions, including “Signing-In” at Te Auaha, Wellington and a large, curated exhibition called “CHAINreaction,” at the Refinery as part of the first Nelson Jewellery Week.
Throughout the programme, the artists benefited from a series of lectures and workshops on professional ethics, fundraising, communication, and design. They also received valuable training on presenting and promoting work online, thanks to a masterclass workshop led by Estella Saez (ES).
Despite the obstacles presented by Covid, the HS6 artists remained resilient, supporting each other and working together as a team. Their successful funding campaign and video and catalogue production for the final exhibition MORPH at NorthArt, Auckland showcased their extraordinary qualities and demonstrated the power of effective teamwork. Overall, the HS6 programme provided a valuable opportunity for emerging artists to develop their skillset and showcase their refined work to a wider audience.
Iris Eichenberg’s masterclass in 2020
HS6 focused primarily on the individual development of each mentee’s art practice with the feedback and assistance of their selected mentor. Their exploration package contained research, experimentation, as well as various design processes and material explorations. The year started with a JEWELcamp, which was about expectations, obligations, and professional ethics.
Renee Bevan (artist and educator) conducted her famous PUSH-PULL workshop aiming in providing a series of methods for exploring and widening ideas and designs.
JEWELcamp is followed by a masterclass from Iris Eichenberg. The HS6 artists were set off with various toolsets of new approaches and opportunities.
HS6 artists at their MORPH opening, Northart, Auckland, August 2022
- (top row:) Maca Bernal, Simon Swale, Susan Videler, Antonia Boyle, Nikki Perry, Jack Hadley, Michelle Wilkinson
- (bottom row:) Fran Leitch, Mia Straka, Nina van Duijnhoven, Aphra Cheesman, Amelia Rothwell
NEWS & BLOG:
Masterclass with Estela Saez
Our masterclass with Estela was engaging, thought provoking and fast paced. During our meetings, there was no time to over think things – sometimes we only had 30 seconds to make something so we no choice but to go with our first instincts. It was challenging (in a...
MORPHING thoughts
MORPHING thoughts in ART variables DESIGN is the form. FORM is the purpose + medium. The CRAFT is the making, including techniques. The MATERIAL is the character. VISUAL ART is the content. The CONTENT connects the imagination. IMAGINATION forms the value. The...
Zooming in
Handshake7 contemporary jewellery Masterclass with Estela Saez
SHAPE SHIFTER: HS6 Fundraiser
The HANDSHAKE6 group has been collaborating on a fundraising necklace project for a while, and they are excited to share the results! These necklaces are a collaboration between the group with each participant designing one of the 12 shapes. There are 4 different...
Aphra Cheesman winning the Prize for Design
HANDSHAKE 6 artist Aphra Cheesman won the TALENTE PRIZE - Prize for Design 2022 at TALENTE ('Preiss für Gestaltung'), Munich MORE
into the darkness… again….
Well we’re underway again with some more Handshake masterclass magic!. Estela Saez had us leaping into the dark and if not exactly leading us blindly into the night, then certainly coaxing us into new and (for meat least) quite unknown territory. Just as you’d expect...
‘August 2020’- a Glimmer
at Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Upper Hutt 21 May – 27 June 2022 Our second exhibition of new work as members of Handshake_6, GLIMMER reveals a sample of our current work as we build towards our final exhibition at Northart in Auckland later in the year. For the year July...
A Glimmer of Hope
364 Days and a Glimmer of Hope Unwittingly I began my work for Glimmer in January 2021. After the psychological turbulence of 2020 I decided to create a simple repetitive task that could be completed regardless of what was to happen in 2021. So, the link a day...
‘Ethiopia’, as part of ‘GLIMMER’
at Whirinaki Whare Taonga, 21 May - 27 June 2022 The second and penultimate exhibition of new work by members of Handshake_6, GLIMMER offers a sample of our current work as we build towards our final exhibition at Northart in Auckland later in the year. ...
JEWELLERY GLIMMER
HANDSHAKE 6 exhibition at WHIRINAKI WHARE TAONGA, Upper Hutt, Wellington, NZ Saturday 21 May - Sunday 24 July, 2022 'Jewellery Glimmer' is how jewellery is in conversation with many of their surroundings. The art works in this exhibition are made from...
Support Letter for Handshake Project
A letter sent to Peter in support of the Handshake Project. March 2022 As a busy full time jewellery artist and business owner, over the past two years, Handshake has kept me anchored to my somewhat elusive artistic practice. In a world where I work hard to generate...
Project Overwhelming
"I keep having these weird dreams of jewellery getting really big and really small...its overwhelming"
It’s a wrap…?
Here we are then, December 2021. What a time. During the past two years I was challenged by my illustrious mentor Manon Van Kouswijk to stop working with the materials and medium I was most comfortable with; metal and jewellery, in order to expand my horizons and...
Drawing the threads together- the Age of Information
Translating two dimensional data drawings into digital visualisations, into three dimensional adornment -exploring time and experience.
Jewellery (and sometimes not jewellery)
Over the past couple of years I have been making a lot of objects with a plan that they will become jewellery. Whether I add a necklace cord or brooch fitting, or perhaps they trigger an idea for a future jewellery piece. But, a year later I looked back and these...
HANDSHAKE 6
HS6 collaboration video work
WELCOME TO HANDSHAKE 6 (HS6), 2020 – 2021/22
The HS6 two-year programme package provided emerging jewellery artists with a unique opportunity to develop skills through masterclasses, mentoring and work development that entails experimentation and exhibiting. Iris Eichenberg (US) handpicked twelve talented artists and matched them with recommended mentors, who provided regular feedback and support throughout the two-year programme. Iris Eichenberg came in 2019 to Auckland and conducted a masterclass with HS6 artists that set off processes for various conceptual and design toolsets, approaches, and opportunities. Her public lecture at Objectspace, Auckland attracted a full house of enthusiasts.
Despite the challenges posed by Covid that stopped all in our tracks, each HS6 artist could continue online and extend their research, experimentation, and development, assisted by their assigned mentors who provided regular guidance. The first exhibition opportunity was pre-Covid and curated by Weasel Gallery, Hamilton (now rebranded as Laree Payne Gallery). The HS6 artists had during Covid the opportunity to showcase their work at various exhibitions, including “Signing-In” at Te Auaha, Wellington and a large, curated exhibition called “CHAINreaction,” at the Refinery as part of the first Nelson Jewellery Week.
Throughout the programme, the artists benefited from a series of lectures and workshops on professional ethics, fundraising, communication, and design. They also received valuable training on presenting and promoting work online, thanks to a masterclass workshop led by Estella Saez (ES).
Despite the obstacles presented by Covid, the HS6 artists remained resilient, supporting each other and working together as a team. Their successful funding campaign and video and catalogue production for the final exhibition MORPH at NorthArt, Auckland showcased their extraordinary qualities and demonstrated the power of effective teamwork. Overall, the HS6 programme provided a valuable opportunity for emerging artists to develop their skillset and showcase their refined work to a wider audience.
Iris Eichenberg’s masterclass in 2020
HS6 focused primarily on the individual development of each mentee’s art practice with the feedback and assistance of their selected mentor. Their exploration package contained research, experimentation, as well as various design processes and material explorations. The year started with a JEWELcamp, which was about expectations, obligations, and professional ethics.
Renee Bevan (artist and educator) conducted her famous PUSH-PULL workshop aiming in providing a series of methods for exploring and widening ideas and designs.
JEWELcamp is followed by a masterclass from Iris Eichenberg. The HS6 artists were set off with various toolsets of new approaches and opportunities.
HS6 artists at their MORPH opening, Northart, Auckland, August 2022
- (top row:) Maca Bernal, Simon Swale, Susan Videler, Antonia Boyle, Nikki Perry, Jack Hadley, Michelle Wilkinson
- (bottom row:) Fran Leitch, Mia Straka, Nina van Duijnhoven, Aphra Cheesman, Amelia Rothwell
HS6 BLOG posts:
Morph report – here and now
We chose Morph as our collective title and theme for this culminating exhibition to embody the transitional and transformative epoch of both the pandemic and Handshake6 on our lives, work and group dynamic.
It’s a wrap.
I wrote my last blog in September 2021. So it’s a wrap (see cover shot of all our names peeled off the wall). Our final show Morph, Aug 27 2022 - Oct 8 2022, at NorthArt in Auckland. We arrived, set-up, and opened. Small turn out for Auckland. I showed my face. This...
Full circle
I began to think about this idea back when Handshake 6 started. Back when the Social uprising in my country had just began. This nonsensical news article hit me in my soft spot I guess. I took me all of two years to get it out of my system. Pearl Molotov, jewellery...
Morph report part I – time based works
Information Age adornment projected through space and time
Morph, the final exhibition.
‘Any group, society, institution, or organisation that encourages women to revile the eccentric, to be suspicious of the new and unusual; to avoid the fervent, the vital, the innovative; to impersonalise the personal, is asking for a culture of dead women.’ Clarissa...