This is my contemporary jewellery gallery, here you'll see selected pieces of jewellery hand made since my graduation from Manchester Metropolitan University in June 1999 to the present day. It includes press features, exhibition pieces, fashion photo shoot collections and catwalk pieces. The most recent work is first. To see some of my commissions and bespoke jewellery click here
Many of these unique items of jewellery have been exhibited around the world including New York, Brussels, Singapore, Auckland, San Francisco and Sydney. Most of the jewellery on this page isn't for sale but if you see something you like or have any questions about any of my work then please email me. For up to date exhibitions and projects, please visit the NEWS page
My latest exhibition piece of work is titled 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' made from silver plated '38 special' bullets, red nylon and an oil can. It was exhibited at The 12 Days of Christmas...It is documented that the 12 Days of Christmas is religious song and that 10 Lords A Leaping represents the 10 commandments.
AUG - SEPT 2004, collaborated with Italian fashion designer Franco Francesca on his London & Milan fashion show at Profile & Milan Fashion Week. Pieces shown were Large Barb Wire Necklace and Mouthpieces.
The Large Barb Wire Necklace is now part of the Grundy Art Gallery's public collection along with my Steel Cable Necklace and Multi Fuse Necklace
JANUARY 2005
Collaboration with contemporary fashion photographer Lucy Bunhill, incorporating my Spiky Necklaces, both as a neck and head piece.
I collaborated with internationally acclaimed fashion photographer James Lightbown on his Senseless project. My now infamous Hearing Aid Jewellery (see below) was used for the shoot.
Brief:
To explore the concept of sense deprivation and the visual metaphors that
illustrate the loss of something we take so much for granted.
Model: Alexia Rochford Boss
Having a big mouth can sometimes get you into trouble, I should know. The only similarity George W. Bush and I have in common is the inability to keep our traps shut. I have no political inclinations nor do I wish to present a particular social comment, however I do know that George's views can take us to a very scary place, a place I don't want to go - a world at war. The Gobstopper Mouthpiece was designed to be placed the wearers mouth to shut him/ her up.
The Commission Me exhibition was my first major role as a curator. We set out to show 10 of the best contemporary jewellery makers in the northwest of England.
The brief was: Design a piece of jewellery for someone in particular, friend or foe, famous or not, dead or alive.
The 10 selected designers were: Adele Kime, Michael McIntyre, Gilly Langton, Jo Lavelle, Ben Woodcock, Stephanie Summerhill, Jasmine Fish, Anthony Wong, Heather Skowood, and myself.
The show was a great success with major publicity and lots of sales for the designers.
It was designed for the Commission Me touring exhibition in 2003, which was at Urbis - Manchester, The Bluecoat - Liverpool and The Grundy Art Gallery - Blackpool. We were supported by ACJ (Association For Contemporary Jewellery) and Northwest Arts Board.
The piece has since been purchased.
Since the success of the Gobstopper Mouthpiece, a Texan chap thought he would email me his opinion!
I was commissioned by Leicester City Gallery to design and make a piece of contemporary jewellery for a person with a disability for the Adorn Equip exhibition. My client, Ali Briggs was the inspiration for this provocative piece that clips comfortably onto her own hearing aid. Ali is an renowned actress and her most recent role was in Britain's Coronation St.
Let's celebrate the hearing aid instead of disguising it.
This piece has since been purchased as part of the MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) permanent collection
Photo by Fliss Shillingford.
Aluminum Necklace -
Spinal Necklace,
aluminum and steel, 1999.
The Ali Necklace and Spinal Necklace pieces were part of my degree show of which I obtained a 1st class B.A (Hons) in 3D Design. I always have and still am very interested in recycling waste. This piece was re-used and re-made from an old aluminum window frame. It's still on show today at various exhibitions.
A set of 3 body pieces designed for my degree show. They inspiration for theses pieces was performance artist Franco B. An Italian who, amongst other things, pierces his skin whilst on stage and lets his blood run free. I thought he needed a little contemporary jewellery to help him survive his performances. He only performed this piece twice a year…understandably.
No it's not a doggie necklace…it's Drag Queen Necklace made to satisfy my fascination with the afore mentioned gender. Just like a drag queen it's very over the top, it measures 3 metres in length, it's pink and blue to symbolize the contrast between boy and girl, it also has two pendants which sit over the wearers genitals which are designed around the male and female genitalia, it's sparkly and brash and it's also very noisy…need I say more.
The original Spiky Necklace. A continuation of the hair/ spiky theme, and also used in a hair shoot for Tony & Guy.
Photo by Jon Cotton.
A severe and scary arm piece, designed to represent the fearsome traps set to kill animals.
Fashion designer Paul Clarke commissioned these set of 5 mouthpieces for his 1999 London fashion show. The pieces depict (like his collection) a pushing and manipulation of the face.
barb wire range• wraparound range • message bangles •glass bangles •flower range •fuse range • spiky necklaces • coil bangle
colette hazelwood contemporary jeweller, studio 4, manchester craft & design centre, 17 oak st. northern quarter, manchester, m4 5jd. UK
tel: (0044) 161 839 0030 fax: (0044) 161 832 3419 email: info@colettehazelwoodjewellery.co.uk
The Manchester
Guardians original purpose was to resist a Hiroshima sized 20 kiloton atom
bomb, and preserve essential communications links even if the centre of Manchester
had been flattened
It is (now) an underground telephone exchange in the centre of Manchester.
The main tunnel, 300m by 7m, lays 34 metres below buildings in Back George
Street, linking up to an unmarked surface building containing the entrance
lifts and ventilator shafts. A mile-long tunnel runs west to Salford, and
a thousand-yard (700m) tunnel runs to Lockton Close in Ardwick, where a ventilator
building marks the south-eastern extension of the Manchester tunnels.
In the event of an attack, Guardian's main entry shaft was to have been sealed by a 35 ton concrete slab that could be positioned over the entrance. People could escape either by using a built-in hydraulic jacks to lift the slab some weeks after attack, or via the deep level tunnels to Ardwick and Salford. Emergency stores contained six weeks' supply of food rations, and Guardian had its own artesian well, generators, fuel tanks, and artificial windows and scenery painted onto walls. The exchange was to survive even if the city it served was destroyed. The tunnels still exist today, but are sadly forbidden to the public.
The Jewellery
The brooch pin
with detachable ear piece is made from (oxidised) silver, steel, nylon and
concrete. The form is taken from the (rare) maps of the tunnels. Its detachable
silver ear piece is representative of the communication cables that now run
through the tunnel - and its blackened body, the use of steel & concrete
are symbolic of the tunnels structure. There is also a cut out ‘window’
in the piece, but this is also filled with concrete, just as the fake windows
are within the tunnel itself.
The jewellery piece along with the accompanying sounds will be a reminder
of the futility of war and the fragility of life.
June - Aug 6 2005, I exhibited with the Manchester Jewellers Network in our mid year show Limited Edition, and the first location was Manchester Craft & Design Centre. . The show featured all the members of the group who produced new work...Each jeweller made an exclusive range of 3-5 pieces incorporating colour and with over 20 designers taking part the exhibition promised to deliver an amazing variety of styles and influences.
The show then toured onto the Atkinson Gallery in Southport, Golddigger 79 in Belfast
