Meet the Maker - Issi Bulloch

This week we speak to Issi Bulloch for our final installment of our Enchantment Exhibition 'Meet The Maker'  Interviews. A jeweller who casts the Natural World through the things that she finds & forages. Creatures, plants and leaves are all cast into precious metals and transformed into wearable emblems and decorative jewels.

~When did you start creating jewellery?~

Over 15 yrs ago now, I once was a painter but that was a lifetime ago, it's almost so long ago it's like it never happened. One day I hope to return to this practice but for now my journey is through alchemy and the five elements. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Myself.

 ~Who inspires you the most? (No rules here, other jewellers, artists or even family & friends)~

Justin Gilday. If anyone wants to see something truly remarkable check out Justin’s chessboard where each piece is made from different insects he has found and collected over the years, and turned into the corresponding chess pieces. (www.justingilday.co.uk)A lifetime of love for those critters who people hate but whom both me and Justin seem to gravitate to. We both undoubtedly have a connection to all things slightly macabre or cabinet of curiosity’s one might say. Justin’s background as a dental technician and Pest control showed him the way to cast botanical, natural things (such as the insects) rather than carve them out of wax, known as the Lost-Wax method. Botanical, Organic Casting. A method which he showed me which uses the actual found natural piece, burnt away like an offering to the Kiln Gods, honoured and cremated. He is my mentor and will be always and forever an inspiration in showing me this obsessive path to cast all things in nature and see them in a metallic form.

~What was the inspiration for the jewellery in the exhibition?~

Ferns my new obsession and the glorious finds of dragonflies and butterflies. What could be more enchanting than these magical finds. To find these specimens in all their glory has been lucky enough and then to cast them in true form where the variables weighed in my favour. Makes these pieces truly magical.

~If you weren’t a jeweller what would choose as a career?~

A taxidermist or an Archeologist. As these both cater to my obsession of Foraging and stumbling across finds or Bonne Trouvé’s.

~Please can you tell us a bit about your creative process?~

I see myself as a caster first and foremost and then a silversmith. But unlike most jewellers who out-source their production every aspect of my work is done by me. The foraging, the casting, the designing and creating, the stone-setting and the mega mega amount of polishing. All me, oh and some help from my 4 yrs old twin boys and 5 yrs daughter.

A jeweller who casts the Natural World through the things i find & forage.

Though my direction has always been the Casting. I feel like it taken me the last 15yrs to really perfect the alchemy of casting. Practice makes perfect and i only really feel now that im starting to create some truly magical pieces.

Casting is an addiction, constantly seeing what things will work, what things burn away perfectly and what things hold hidden flaws due to excess moisture or woody content. I am addicted to trying out new things. And constantly view things in texture rather than colour as I wonder what it will look like in metal form.

 ~What are you listening to? (podcasts recommendations/ studio playlists/ the sounds that motivate you?)~

Blindboy podcast always keep me on my toes or if I’m doing endless polishing then I love to boogie to some techno keeps the blood moving otherwise I’d be sat still constantly at my bench.

~What’s next for you?~

Motherhood and the connection to being a Mother. Work which involves a delicate tie between mother and baby which I have been casting. The life source of Umbilical cords. Jewellery which is more than a talisman it’s the life source between mamas and their little beings. I’m only touching on a little of this as it’s hugely sentimental and close to my own heart, but more to be revealed soon.

 ~Which is your favourite piece?~

The Kinetic Dragonfly. Because he/she was found dead outside my polytunnel in one of the baths collecting rainwater. The most glorious, magnificent find to date, especially to be found in the U.K. I’ve got many a beetle, scorpion or cicada from Kenya but all are outshined by this magnificent dragonfly.

Did you know that dragonflies are a symbol of change? Of something big coming. The day I believe I conceived my daughter and turned from a maid into a mother a dragonfly like this one landed on my nose. And was witnessed by many as I was at Glastonbury Festival at the time. Change was coming. And it most definitely was…