This week Tenille Evans talks to us about her inspirations.For tengirls tencolours, she is exploring the colour YELLOW.
For more info about her works go to EELS jewellery + scrimshaw + objects
What materials inspire you?
I love warm organic materials like buffalo horn and bone. I enjoy materials that have their own history before I start working with them. The unique surface fluctuations and colour variations in a piece of horn inspire me the most. I am also conceptually inspired by traditional materials like gold and silver. I find myself continually drawn to ideas of permanence, mortality and decay in my exhibition work. So often, the juxtaposition of metal with things like paper, fabric and string allows me to explore these concepts in a very tactile and direct way.
What is your favorite tool in the workshop? Why?
I love my custom-made scrimshaw tool. It is probably the tool I use the most! Its is really just like a very heavy scribe, with super sharp interchangeable steel tips. The man who made it specialises in scrimshaw tools and has definitely perfected the art! It makes my scrimshaw work so much easier. I know a lot of jewellers and metalsmiths might shudder at this, but I also really love emery and sand paper and the process of sanding down and polishing up a piece of metal, horn or bone. Even though it can be a tedious process, the pleasure I get from seeing something shiny and smooth emerging from the dirty mess that polishing makes is just divine!
Where do you think your creativity comes from?
I'm not sure what has driven my creativity. My family are mostly corporate types, in terms of career. Although they are certainly not boring and are all wild and creative in their own way! I do know that I have always been creative. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember and knew that I would eventually try to make an arts career of some kind. I fell into jewellery design by accident. I studied other fields of design, arts, art history, literature and sociology before dropping out of uni altogether. After a wasted year working in a pub, I decided, "I have to do something!", google searched tafe courses and stumbled on Jewellery and Object Design. I thought I may as well give it a go. As soon as I had finished cutting out that first piece of metal into a tiny perfect square, I was hooked!
What is your favorite colour?
This is a hard one now. Had I been asked this question a few months ago, I would have said red. After exploring colour for 10 Girls. 10 Colours. my experience of colour has changed. The spectrum of shade and tone within each colour is infinite. I have noticed now that there are actually some shades of red that make me feel quite ill. There are also some shades of purple that I find positively delightful and while I love some incarnations of green, others make me shudder. Colour is such an emotional thing. It is linked to memory and personal experience.
Who inspires you?
Since giving birth to my son a year ago, I'd definitely say him. As well as the rest of my family and close friends. Without trying to sound too sentimental (or like a hippy!) I feel connected to the collective consciousness of humanity through the people I love. Inspiration for me, comes from the complex interconnectedness of all of us and the world we live in. More simply, I feel at my most inspired and creative when I feel a deep sense of connection with those around me. Nurturing these connections, nurtures my creativity.
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