Additional Info
'In the corner' delves into the designer's past as an architect, while utilising his skills as a jeweller to inform raw material constructs. A gaze forward into the future to think about what might become of materials as they interact with their immediate environment. His interest in tactility, movement and play gives the viewer the opportunity to place a piece within their own environment, to slow down and create a personal experience of their own.
Welfe Bowyer is a contemporary jewellery artist currently based in Mahurangi East, Aotearoa. Born in Glaneirw, Cymru (Wales) and raised in the Rangitikei region, Aotearoa (New Zealand), he graduated from the Victoria School of Architecture, Wellington in 2005, and worked in Melbourne, Australia between 2010 and 2020, where he simultaneously began experimenting with jewellery design while working in the Architectural field. This allowed him the perfect medium with which to conceptualise, experiment and create three-dimensional forms on a scale different to that of architecture. Bowyer is an award-winning student (Dulux Architecture design award 2004), and a finalist in the Mari Funaki Award 2018. Predominantly self-taught, in combination with studying skills courses at NMIT, Welfe’s jewellery has its emphasis on form and structure, material combinations, and textures that are used to bind elements.
“I like to create hand-made textures with common alloys of Bronze, Silver and Gold and combine them in unique ways, playing off the strengths of one metal over another to create a language that speaks of time and erosion and how pieces might evolve in the future as they are worn.”