At the end of the garden

By ANDREW CLIFFORD


Nestled amid the flowers and moss-covered chairs at the end of Pauline Bern's rambling Devonport garden is an old shed. Part of the property previously owned by her grandparents, this is the workshop where she produces her jewellery. It is a haven and a hive of activity.

A string of colliding end-of-year deadlines means she is exhibiting in the Objectspace window, taking part in a group show at Masterworks, working on a feature spot at Wellington gallery Avid, and contributing to the Anna Miles Gallery Christmas group show.

When Bern is not hammering and soldering at home, she finds time to work part time running Unitec School of Design's jewellery department. Her course boasts an impressive alumni comprising a who's who of young jewellers, including Jane Dodd, Areta Wilkinson, Gina Matchitt, Octavia Cook and Joanne Campbell.

Many of these graduates have ended up in the Kingsland-based Workshop 6 collective, which Bern sees as an outpost for her department - but she also prefers having her own space.

"I love this solitude after a couple of days at tech," she says. "It's full-on and you're in and out of everyone's heads. Then the second half of the week here is just so nice."

Last year Bern was awarded the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Residency, which allowed her to spend two months working with Australian jewellers at the Gray St Workshop in Adelaide, a period she says was free of distractions. "I just played. I didn't do any completed work and it was fabulous - just maquette making. It was very intuitive, responding to the environment.

"I took my little bag of hand-tools as my little comfort-zone but decided not to use them and to spend that time doing developmental work. It was liberating because you don't allow yourself much of that time."

The residency also made her appreciate how colourful the New Zealand environment is in comparison to the muted brick and stone of Adelaide. This inspired her to work primarily from the environment around her and the resultant Ring Project at Objectspace has been assembled mainly from debris found on Waitemata beaches.

Although she cites the French film The Gleaners and I (2000) as an influence, Bern has been fossicking for most of her life. She says the magpie-like instinct is typical of most jewellers.

"You go into anyone's workshop and you'll see piles of bits we've all gathered. The jeweller's eyes - you definitely zoom in on the detail around you. I walk on the beach every day before I come in here, and half the time I realise I'm watching my feet - where's the next bit of treasure to pick up?"

By taking fragile pieces of flotsam and mounting them on rings Bern is suggesting these are precious things and creating a responsibility to nurture these objects in the same way as a relationship.

"You have to be careful when you wear this ring. If you're really careless with it and you knock it about and wear it in the garden or when you go to the beach, it'll break.

"It will probably fall apart after a certain period of time, so you have to be aware of it and take care of it. I'm saying, relationships that last you can't knock about like that.

"The thinking behind it was setting up the opposite of the diamond engagement ring and the wedding ring that's supposed to show eternity.

"In terms of the old wedding band, you're supposed to wear it in the garden and fixing the car and swim at the beach, but the relationship doesn't necessarily last. So, that was my tie-in - I like thinking about why we wear jewellery."

The work Bern is exhibiting at Masterworks has more domestic implications and is a continuation of her Strain, Grate, Whisk, Scrub (2000) exhibition, inspired by kitchen implements, which toured New Zealand for 18 months.

These are necklaces of finely woven sterling silver, resembling steel wool scrubbers or whisks, and fixed with bits of shell.

A similar piece won her the Thomas Foundation Gold Award in 2000, resulting in the opportunity to create a piece made from 80m of 18ct gold wire.

Although Bern enjoyed the opportunity to create a significant work from gold, she prefers working in silver as the associated price tag keeps her work more accessible.

She also has mixed feelings about the piece having been worn only once and now residing in the Dowse Art Museum's collection. "The whole point of jewellery making is that you make something that goes out and becomes part of someone else's life and has its own story around it.

"It's that whole thing of it being on the body and involved and mobile with the person. I think it makes a whole interesting dynamic that is never-ending to explore."

Exhibition

*What: The Ring Project, by Pauline Bern

*Where and when: Objectspace, 8 Ponsonby Rd to Dec 8

*What: Pauline Bern, Emma Camden, Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis

*Where and when: Masterworks Gallery, 95 Customs St West, opens today, to Dec 4