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Hand made jewelry, the result of cross-pollination between artistic disciplinesBlanche Tilden´s jewelry celebrates modernity. She is an Australian craftsperson and designer, making hand made jewelry that is of this time. Blanche uses everyday materials, precious metals and materials made originally for another purpose.
Blanche studied glass at the Canberra School of Art and then completed a graduate diploma in Gold and Silversmithing. In 1995 she was awarded an Australian Council traineeship at Susan´s Cohn workshop 3000. From then on Blanche has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is featured in many Australian galleries.
Unique jewelry inspired from mechanical devicesHer initial interest and homage to the modern era, making hand made jewelry inspired in mechanical systems containing pulleys, chains and congs, has transformed to a more abstract and iterative design process and products.
Another theme of interest that fuel her hand made jewelry designs is the relationships between design and craft, mass production and handmade. Blanche´s jewelry is designed thinking of creating volume and mass by combining elements and exploring visual rhythms by repeating a single element.
“My inspiration comes from the industrial age and its associated mass production techniques, and the industrial landscape and apparatus that characterized this era”. Blanche´s Studio Hacienda in partnership with Phoebe Porter
Blanche and Phoebe Porter founded Studio Hacienda in 2005. It’s a new metal, glass, jewelry, design workshop set up in a big old factory space. Phoebe was awarded in 2005 the Australian Council Emerging Artist Mentorship, relocating to Melbourne to work with Blanche.
Both have experience in the value of mentorship. Susan Cohn was Blanche´s mentor and now Phoebe with Blanche.
In the studio each continues with their individual practice but enriching their experience in an atmosphere of team work. For example, Blanche´s experience has expanded Phoebe´s understanding of serial production, while Porter´s computer-aided drawing skills have introduced Blanche to the advantages of digital technologies.
Integrating disciplines: synthesizing architecture and jewelryIn 2007, Blanche and Phoebe showed their work at the General Assembly Canberra.The name “general assembly” is the industrial design term for a technical drawing that shows how all the parts of a product fit together. The project makes reference to the traditional pic'n'mix marketing method often used to display and sell small, multiple items. It taps into people’s desire to choose, collect and consume.
In www.theage.com.au Blanche comments: “My eye turned to it and I have drawn on this almost overwhelming source of visual information as inspiration for my work.
The constant exposure to repeated forms – the grid of the Central Business District, the patterns made when windows in high-rise office buildings are lit up at night, signage and advertising, the use of materials like steel mesh or glass, for example, in Federation Square, or the stained grey concrete of the footpath..
“There is so much detail to observe and draw on for inspiration.During the design phase for this show, we spent a lot of time walking around Melbourne laneways with a camera, capturing the surfaces, patterns and shapes of the inner city, which we have incorporated into the show”.
Much like Blanche, start looking up, we are used to gazing straight ahead or down most of the time…
Blanche´s architectural jewelry uses a huge range of materials, including plastic, rubber, gold, glass and metal; but her work is by no means “found object jewelry” – at least I wouldn’t understand it as such (although there’s nothing bad about found object jewelry, I love it). Just like to point out to you the difference, how I understand it, between found object jewelry and jewelry arising from the synthesis of disciplines.
In the first one, the use of found objects is literal and the purpose of the jewel is to highlight the found object and promote its inherent value or make a specific acknowledgement about it. It is an “informative” jewelry; it’s objective if you wish. There is no interiorization of an idea built from the object.
She articulates, blends different but familiar aspects of industrial production and then extracts their constitutive elements and with these conceives the “general assembly” collection.
Blanche, thank you for your generosity, hope to learn more from your clever work! See Blanche´s web-site for more info on her work at
Blanche Tilden.
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This collection is inspired from the urban landscape and architectural cutting-edge buildings and generally the city’s architecture. 
Blanche does not limit herself to communicate her jewelry ideas – like “I’ve just used some chain links and now it’s a necklace”. 
