News Release: Immediate Release

Memories Within Details

The detailed jewellery of Alison MacLeod is on display at Concrete Wardrobe this summer, as the July 2012 Maker of the Month exhibition.

MacLeod combines silver and gold with semi-precious stones and found objects to create thought provoking but very wearable pieces. She is inspired by old objects and heirloom jewellery, and their contained memories of previous owners and imagined narratives.

"My local junk shops are a great source of inspiration to me,” Macleod explains. “I find the jumble exhilarating but am equally fascinated by the individual objects themselves. I love to imagine the stories connected to each discarded artefact.” The use of traditional shapes in her work, such as the cameo, alludes to jewellery’s intrinsic connection to memories and the past.

MacLeod uses a wide range of materials, techniques and imagery to reflect the eclectic nature of her subject matter in an original way. By finely soldering silver beaded wire into clusters she references the intense decoration found in Victorian jewellery, but keeps the styling firmly in a contemporary context. Her silver clusters are saturated with tiny curios of different textures and colours like a junk shop window display. To create this variety she combines techniques such as individual wax casting, sheet silver piercing, reticulation, stone setting and bead stringing.  

MacLeod graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2003 with a 1st class honours degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing. Now based in Glasgow, her work is available both in the UK and internationally.

Of her exhibition at Concrete Wardrobe, co-owner James Donald commented, “MacLeod’s work is delicate, beautiful and wearable. She utilises a broad range of techniques to achieve her aesthetic, and is much acclaimed in Scotland and internationally.  We are very pleased to be bringing her artistry alive in Concrete Wardrobe this July.”

MacLeod’s work will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31st July 2012.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm. Sunday 12 to 4pm.

Concrete Wardrobe 50a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-Owners: James Donald and Fiona McIntosh