Imogen HalesBorrowdale Garland2024

“From my ongoing ‘Garlands’ series, Borrowdale Garland takes its name from the Cumbrian village nestled in the shadow of Scafell Pike. Drawing inspiration from my own relationships to place (both fleeting and long-term), as well as British landscape tradition, it is perhaps inevitable that a preoccupation with the weather permeates this series of work.

In forged and braided wire, layered enamels and applied gold, Borrowdale Garland is a memory made tangible. It’s a wearable memento of a wedding, a thunderstorm, and the invigorating catharsis that tends to follow both; as the dense summer humidity finally broke at midnight, newlywed friends danced in the rain as flashes of lightening illuminated the surrounding hills and mountains of the Lake District.” - Imogen Hales

Imogen Hales is a jeweller and artist based in Edinburgh who applies traditional craft skills in contemporary and unconventional ways. Her wearable pieces engage with craft heritage as a playful and living language, exploring the role of traditions and rituals in preserving the collective memory of place.

With a focus on rural landscapes, where life was once intimately tied to the cyclical rhythms of the seasons, Imogen transposes endangered straw braiding techniques into metal wire and creates lively, painterly surfaces through the application of enamel. Via the repetitive and meditative act of braiding she attempts to momentarily build a bridge to a slower moving world, evoking an intimacy with the past.