About us

jen eales  is a contemporary jewellery and small object line handcrafted by Brisbane metal smith Jen Eales.

 

While living and working currently full time in Brisbane, I am at heart an artist and metal smith by trade. Having experimented with many creative outlets throughout my life I have always endured a profound connection with the stories that I can express through my creations. Through my experiences as a seamstress I truly found my passion in jewellery in my search to find wearable art that complimented my designs. And so jeneales was born.

 

The collection is an exploration into the endless combinations of colour, texture and shape.  Inspired also by the Japanese “Wabi Sabi” concept, I find true beauty in the imperfect and each piece from my collection challenges the traditional idea that jewellery must be perfect. The distinctive signature of the jeneales collection is the ever apparent maker’s mark, leaving an imprint of the emotions translated through the creative process.

 

My artistic approach is inspired by both sustainable art mediums and the deconstructionist movement. Because of the nature of this approach, no piece or scrap goes to waste. I am an assembler of pieces and find that sometimes the most unexpected and unplanned combinations are the most beautiful.

 

I proudly use an eco-resin that is traditionally used for making surfboards, which is UV resistant, waterproof and hypoallergenic. The resin is poured into moulds of many varied shapes and sizes that are all entirely hand carved from wax, polymer clay or recycled acrylic. The individual forms, once set, are then filed and sanded by hand to then be pieced together with a variation of recycled metals and materials. The end product is a marriage of colour and texture, an assembly of many individual pieces that are brought together each time to create something entirely unique.

 

 

The eco-resin that I use as the foundation to my collection is comprised of biobased renewable materials from waste streams of other industrial processes, such as wood pulp and bio-fuel production. I limit all other incorporated materials to found and foraged; recycled silver, copper, timber, acrylic, brass and semi-precious stones, with the exception of certain earring backs and jump rings.

 

The aesthetic of my collection, in line with my artistic ethos, is experimental which allows the collection to grow and change in order to work with available materials. Eco-environmentalism and sustainability have always been underlying values in my life so naturally this translates through my artistic vision, my jewellery collection and the message I choose to send out with my creations