Bella Mung

Profession

BA Jewellery Design Alum

College

Central Saint Martins

Person Type

Alumni

Biography

Bella discusses her ‘Animated Jewellery’, that saw her nominated for a Nova Award 2013.

CSM’s Nova shortlisters are nominated by their Course Leaders and represent the best talent across the degree shows. Here, Bella provides an insight into the work which earned her a prestigious Nova nomination.

Animated Jewellery

“First of all, I think jewellery can be an object not meant to be worn. As jewellery can be alive by itself without the wearer. Therefore in the collection, I am exploring different ideas related to animation of jewellery.

From the starting point, I was inspired by my mother – she always wears a silver chain, I have never seen her take it off from when I was small until now. Usually the chain is partly hidden beneath her clothes. I was interested and intrigued by the way she wears the chain – the relationship between public and private, visible and invisible. Therefore, I copied my mother by putting her long pearl necklace beneath my everyday clothing. As the pearl necklace has some volume, so the clothes took it’s shape and form to create an embossed pattern, to intrigue the viewer and give an illusion of the necklace running through under the clothes.

To inform my work, I have been reading books about the history of the pearl and the relationship between pearl necklace and the society. Therefore, I created ‘The double life of a necklace’ which is unisex, it can easily change to tie or reverse with the necklace magnet clasp.

For most of the collection, I have chosen to use everyday clothes with the combination of pearl necklace ‘running through’. For example some of the pieces are the everyday wear T-shirt or T-shirt shape with different materials. And other pieces are usually worn everyday – Oxford shoes, white canvas shoes and a hoodie. All the pieces in my collection are serious but at the same time also full of humour”.

Bella Mung

Biography

Central Saint Martins

Contact

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