Julia Turner - Jewelry Gallery

"...These pieces are excerpts: pieces of experience, magnified like text. Or maps, with insets showing features which would otherwise appear only as pinpoints in the sea. I am looking at tiny intersections in thought, between logic and emotion, between observation and experience, between the impulse to organize and the impulse to release."

"The flat pieces are made by scratching through white industrial paint down to black oxidized steel underneath. The feeling of drawing with sandpaper and a knife is totally different from that of drawing with a pen. It takes both arms, it makes a sound, it creates dust. The slight distraction of the physical work involved is just enough to keep me from overthinking what I’m doing- it’s the perfect way of tricking myself into drawing from my actual present experience rather than trying to corner distinct images and get them “right”. These start as large panels which I work on in all directions. I draw and then let them sit for a while, then later skim them with a small frame looking for places where a small interaction of shape and line suggests a tension or excitement or sadness that fits what’s on my mind. For me this secondary extraction feels like something between photography and cartography. The full frame implies something partially captured, rather than created to fill a space, and the choice of which areas to magnify and set apart make me feel like a mapmaker deciding what gets an insert: Which parts of this city do people care about the most?"

Julia Turner



Brooch (Blur): steel, wood, 18k gold, 7.5 cm x 7.5cm x .5cm

Julia Turner

Blur Earrings

Blur Earrings: steel, paint, 18k gold, 5cm x 4cm

Julia Turner

Brooch (You Are Here)

Brooch (You Are Here): steel, wood, enamel, paint, 6cm x 6cm x 1cm

Julia Turner

Bracelet (Burn)

Bracelet (Burn): Wood, steel, paint, 4cm wide

Julia Turner

Brooch (Notation)

Brooch (Notation): steel, wood, vitreous enamel,6.5cm x 6.5cm x 1cm

Julia Turner

Brooch (Break)

Brooch (Break): steel, wood, paint, 6.5cm x 6.5cm x 1cm

Julia Turner