jewellery

Joanna Campbell is an award winning jeweller based in Auckland New Zealand. She makes handmade, wearable objects from noble metals, copper alloys and solid wood that occasionally incorporate unusual use of industrial techniques. Her work is distinguished by a fascination for the material properties of textiles and precious metals. “I am interested in exploring the relationship between fabric and metal”. The Japanese Shibori and Mokume Gane techniques, a love of decoration and adornment, a childhood spent making things and a background in textile design and clothing production, have shaped her practice.  Joanna’s fashion production and craft experience (Bachelor of 3D design majoring in jewellery 2001), fuses a multiplicity of skills and concerns. It is an approach that ties the strands of traditional gold and silver smithing to those of technical innovation in fashion.

Joanna’s work sits easily within craft, design and fashion contexts.  Her work has been recognised as exceptional within New Zealand, in 2002 she was recipient of the prestigious Dowse Art Museum Thomas Foundation Gold Award. Her work has featured regularly in international and national media such as Vogue Gioiello and ‘The Times’ and has come to the attention of fashion commentator Diane Pernet. Joanna exhibits often in solo and group shows in New Zealand and internationally and has also been a jewellery tutor. For seven months of 2003 Joanna made the Samurai Amour for the five leads in the film ‘The Last Samurai’. Also in 2003 she was invited to attend the International Mokume Gane Symposium and Exhibition at RMIT in Melbourne. Joanna’s work is held in public and private collections, and as well as making production and exhibition work she also works to commission.