Sophie Filomena is a Bristol-based handmade jeweller who uses the slow fashion process to produce statement, wearable art. They launched a jewellery competition early April for people to submit earring designs using a range of templates, with the best one chosen to be made and gifted to the designer. Anyone could enter as many times as they wanted, so, as a lot of my ongoing projects had been either cancelled or postponed, it was an exciting opportunity to explore these designs in a new context.
“The first design was inspired by my plant/torso tattoo I designed. Seeing it everyday brings me so much joy, so why not design earrings to match? If the COVID-19 outbreak hadn’t cancelled our whole final project, Shannon Winters and I would be making sustainable jewellery and components from waste materials. So, it was fun playing around on Illustrator and Photoshop for Sophie Filomena’s jewellery competition instead”
“I guess the running theme is cancelled projects? This piece was inspired by my Sustainable Futures degree show poster, which was chosen to be the official one for my University of Manchester course department but in typical 2020 fashion that has long been cancelled. So, this gave an opportunity to re-purpose an exciting design that speaks to my true love – sustainable design – and Sophie Filomena‘s brand ethos as a slow fashion handmade jewellery wizard”
“Around a month ago I wrote a coronavirus-related article about how this outbreak had seemingly made the rich greedier and the poor poorer, which I also designed some virus characters for that I’ve ironically now become quite fond of. In staying true to my cancelled theme, I hope this COVID-19 outbreak will be cancelled asap, but until then I guess these caricatures can come out to play in the form of another design for the jewellery competition”
