Interview with Darren Wallace, who designs and creates 9ct gold and sterling silver jewellery.

Pretty In Pink
Solid 9ct gold pendant and Australian solid crystal opal.

What kind of jewellery do you create?

I label myself as a "hobbyist jeweller" who creates 30 to 40 one off original Australian hand crafted pieces of jewellery per year in either solid 9ct Australian gold or solid 925 sterling or bright silver.

I like to think of my jewellery as uniquely “Australian” being handcrafted in Australia using Australian solid opals and free form designs based on the shapes of Australian Flora.

I love creating both modern and free form jewellery with an ere of elegance and sophistication.
The challenge of free form design is in the ability to replicate the wonderful natural shapes that only mother nature can produce.

Many of my designs are complimented with the rich explosive colour of Australian solid opals or the soft pastels of natural faceted gemstones.

I don’t create tiffany jewellery as this to me is commercial jewellery common place in almost all jewellery stores.

How and when did you become interested in jewellery making?

My journey to jewellery making began approximately 30 years ago where as a junior i joined the Diamond Valley gem club in Melbourne and learned the art of cutting gemstones and opals. As a family we enjoyed the many club weekend field trips fossicking for minerals and the excitement of finding real “gold” when gold panning.

My father due to ill health was forced to retired early from work and undertook a 4 year diploma course in gold and silver smithing at RMIT in Melbourne and went on to teach and conduct jewellery classes of his own. It was during this period I would learn the valuable techniques of jewellery making.

My wonderful mother, as a child, grew up in the dusty plains of Violet Town in Victoria. In those days, being a daughter of a minister, the family would have to move every five years and she grew up living off the land and was always as one with nature. She had many talents, one of which included the skill of meticulously sketching the various species of Australian Flora.

The exposure and influence to jewellery making, opal cutting and Australian flora is the foundation of my jewellery designs today. I dedicate my designs to my mother who is no longer with us and I would love to share my work with all Australia, a country she loved so dearly and in loving memory of her.

Solid 9ct gold neckpiece

What is it that attracts you to jewellery making as a form of artistic expression?

I truly believe in the statement that “history defines us”.

As a 7 year old boy growing up in the outskirts of Melbourne, I so vividly remember working with my father in his workshop; exploring ideas and encourage me to use my imagination turning ideas into physical objects . This coupled with the diverse artistic endeavours of my family members provided me with a platform to express myself through jewellery making.

Jewellery designs are bound only by your imagination. To take a flat lifeless sheet of material and elevate it into a warm highly polished three dimension elegant shape of your design is artistic expression at its best.

How would you describe the style and theme of your pieces?

There are two very distinct and separate styles to my jewellery.The first being modern designs using fabrication techniques and heavy gauge geometric materials. The second is a natural free form design using Australian Flora as the basis.

The common theme for all my jewellery is “elegance”. Elegance by my definition is “simple fine line design, warmth and colour”.

What is the latest piece you have been working on?

“TOP SECRET”

I like to challenge the boundaries of the way jewellery is presented on the body. My goal is to create new designs that accentuate, in an elegant and sophisticated way, more of the natural curves of the body including the back, neck and shoulder line. This goal is in keeping with the current trends of women’s evening wear fashions. Fashions are moving toward lower cut front and back necklines including the fashionable strapless styles. To compliment this fashion trend, the jewellery piece I’m working on is an integrated two piece design. The design to be long, elegant and visual from the front with an integrated trailing piece joined at the clasp at the rear of the neck and a second jewellery piece to extend down to accentuate the lower back.

The second jewellery piece is a modern fine line solid neck wire. The neck wire to extend across the shoulder line.

Jewellery interview continued on next page
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