Brisbane based artist Helen Moriarty seeks to return precious materials to circulation as wearable art by reusing and re-purposing donated unwanted jewelry. Currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Art at Griffith University majoring in Jewelry and Small Objects, Moriarty aims to create a new connection between the jeweler and the wearer.
Moriarty’s Reformed series in Greensmith explores the idea of reconstituting old disused jewelry fragments into new pieces. The earring are made from a recycled gold necklace and emeralds from a lapidarist who considered them “waste material”. Moriarty particularly seeks out found objects that embody reminders of place or hold stories of their past. It is especially important to her that the wearer feels connected to the making and the story held in the piece.