Jacqueline Morren

For Jacqueline Morren this body of work is a new direction.

She sets herself a big challenge to sculpt without training or access to technical tools. At times this has resulted in her having to create her own implements, to aid the stretching & curving of the silver out of one piece, without the use of soldering.

Maker’s marks are left intentionally; I have no inclination towards smooth perfection. I love discovering the magical combination of metals & Jade until it feels right, usually after a long process. This enables the wonderful greenstone to come to life, to its fullest potential.

The art work is layered with era’s bygone, present and anticipated future innovation.

Jacqueline Morren was born in The Netherlands and after extensive travels ‘ended up’ in New Zealand where she became acquainted with its precious stone Pounamu. During her first visit she attended a night class in Jade Carving whilst teaching full time at the Tai Poutini Polytechnic. When her year visa had ran out she travelled some more and after returning to The Netherlands she was overcome by a very strong pull to take up working again with the amazing greenstone. She returned as an international student and earned a Diploma in Jade and Hard Stone Carving.

She always was on the lookout for a silversmith to start a successful collaboration and combine the Jade with Silver; this to no avail. She then began tentatively teaching the silversmithing craft on her own, at that point without the aid of internet or YouTube.

Recently she is moving more towards the smithing side of silversmithing a craft almost lost and again very little information is available; only a handful of colleges around the world still teach this craft. She hand forges a spoon from a 6mm square bar of sterling silver and hammers it out to a long stemmed spoon all out of one piece of silver.

The holloware comes from a flat disc of sheet silver and is hand beaten into the vessels on show. There is no soldering involved, the objects do not have any fixed handles or bases as she wants the viewer to experience the tactile qualities of the form without anything interfering. In trying to follow these principles she sets herself an extra challenge to find innovative ways to balance and display the work without compromising the form.

Jacqueline strives to be as ethical as possible in her studio, harsh chemicals are replaced with old traditional and natural products and the materials are joined without the use of glue. She recycles and melts down her silver dust collected whilst creating new pieces. Silver and gold are at times found during second hand shop trips or are kindly donated.

Jacqueline works full time from her studio and creates her jewellery and sculptural objects. Also she is a part time teacher for various courses at Hagley Community College.