Machi de Waard

I make my modernist silver and gold jewellery at my studio in Reading, Berkshire, where I’ve been working for more than 15 years. From January 2010 to December 2011, I was Jeweller in Residence at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell. In 2021, my book that I wrote with fellow jeweller Janet Richardson, “Silver Jewellery Making”, was published by award-winning craft publisher Search Press. Combining my studio practice with teaching, I teach jewellery making in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. My work is regularly shown at galleries and exhibitions in the UK. 

Recipient of a Behrens Foundation Bursaries Award

My work is not reactive. It is internally generated: a manifestation of me in metal. Informed by the visual language of twentieth century modern art, I reject frippery and embrace clarity. 

Distilled into a self-imposed strictly limited palette, my work focuses on visually and physically strong shapes such as lines and circles. I find my creativity by limiting myself to only a few shapes, making iterations of those shapes with varying details following an internal logic. My perfectionist tendencies show in two ways: a drive towards design that is as clean and crisp as possible and a desire to push craftsmanship to higher levels. 

But it’s not all serious: a lightness of touch is present; perhaps an unexpected detail, a spot of optical illusion or a miniature scale to invite approachability. Although my work uses quite formal visual language, there’s an edge of playfulness that entices the viewer to come closer, to interact with the pieces. These handmade pieces invite the viewer to handle them, feel their weight, touch their edges and explore their details.