LIFE AQUATIC
A fascination with environmental phenomena proved a natural well of inspiration for Jordan Askill, who dove headfirst into the sea to design his new jewellery collection. By Jen Nurick.
A fascination with environmental phenomena proved a natural well of inspiration for Jordan Askill’s new jewellery collection.
JORDAN ASKILL SLIPS between 17th-century dynastic Russia and Hollywood’s Golden Age with ease, diverting to Victorian England and the ancient Etruscans to tether the past to his jewellery now. His references are diverse and, like his design practice, transcend a single discipline or point in time.
As he explains: “Having a piece of jewellery that can be passed down through generations, you can remember a time, and talk about it.”
The Australian-born jewellery designer and sculptor, who launched his eponymous label in 2010 and recently returned home from New York, is halfway through his first year of a Bachelor of Marine Biology at the University of Technology Sydney.
Having worked under Alexander McQueen and Hedi Slimane before venturing out on his own, his full-time commitment to a three-year environmental sciences degree is an atypical methodological approach for a jeweller. But Askill, who is determined to forge a link between precious species and precious jewellery, insists the two go hand in hand.
“It’s a form of communication; an interconnectedness that means I can discuss what I feel is so vulnerable in the world, and transport it to a place where we can talk about it,” he explains. “Throughout history, a gem, a jewel, has always been prized and considered valuable. To transfer that to endangered species is at the core of what I’m passionate about.”
His latest collection, inspired by the great white shark, is intended to arouse such discussion and revise negative perceptions of sharks. “I think it came from Jaws. They were given a bad association in the press,” he says. “[But] sharks are just doing what they know to survive. The collection was about making a connection between us and these species.”
This attempt at connection is reified in gilded sharks that embrace a single Paspaley pearl as it falls softly from a necklace, and on ears, where they appear to swim out from each hoop. Both demonstrate juxtapositions between Askill’s delicate sensibility and the violent stereotype of sharks he wants to dispel, but there’s evidence of reconciliation too. The fragile quality of Askill’s fine jewellery mimics the shark’s fragile standing in the public eye, while the twists and bends of the fish connect the inertia of the jewellery with the ocean’s motion.
To develop his jewellery Askill renders species into 3D sculptures, which he then manipulates to achieve a photo-realistic likeness before settling on stones and metals. He tells of the fossilisation of opals, the water conditions conducive for producing pearls and the sustainable amethyst mines he visited in Zambia. Each anecdote emphasises his hand in every step of his collections (which take six months to a year to produce) and his willingness to seize every learning and minimise his environmental impact. For Askill, this means intensive study, closely monitoring supply chains and using recycled gold.
And while he has lived overseas, it’s not lost on Askill that his interests in natural phenomena and fine jewellery have coalesced upon coming home. As he reflects: “I grew up near the water. It’s almost my happy place. It seems like the perfect place to start this journey.”