The 2022 edition of Pensieri Preziosi, (Precious thoughts), is an exhibition dedicated to contemporary jewellery. It has for over fifteen years been staged in the magnificent and unique venue of the Padua Oratory of San Rocco, Padua, Italy.

Eighty-five artists from all over the world were asked to interpret the tradition of devotional jewellery in light of the exceptionally serious events the world is going through.

Devotional jewellery has always been associated with intimate feelings and emotions such as mourning, separation, remembrance and consolation and it is particularly interesting to see how the invited artists have interpreted them in the contemporary world

Text: Andrea Colasio, Councillor for Culture + Sergio Giordani, Mayor of Padua

Curated by: Mirella Cisotto Nalon with Maria Rosa Franzin
From an idea by Dr Elena Alfonsi

The project was first proposed by the AGC member Elena Alfonsi. The selection of authors was curated by Dr. Mirella Cisotto Nalon, former Head of the Cultural Activities Sector of the Municipality of Padua, by Dr. Elena Alfonsischolar of History of Art Criticism, and Cultural Tanatologist and by Dr. Nichka Marobin, Art Historian.

Bottomley was one of the 16 invited international artists from Europe, Japan, United States, Korea, South Africa and China. invited to be part of this project who created two groups of work as part of this significant exhibition.

A further 69 artists represent applied and were selected for the wider exhibition.

The range of work provided an innovative vision in the field of jewellery by demonstrating the use of materials, techniques, manufacturing process through design and according to each participants spirit of research in Contemporary Jewellery. The aim was to expose a wide variety of creative thoughts, styles, and techniques, in both precious and non-precious materials.

Work submitted by Bottomley Included:

'Love- Love me not', 2022, Brooches, Steel and enamel
42 Diam x 2mm
+
'Loss-T', Faience (Egyptian paste), mixed media
500 x 540 x 30mm

'Love- Love Me Not’ follows the origins of the French game where the person picks one petal at a time from a flower. In this grouping the absence of each petal irrevocably changes the appearance and symmetry of the jewels left behind -reflecting their loss.

'Loss-T' Is made from hand-made Faience or Egyptian paste, a low-fire mixture of ceramic materials containing clay, sand, colorants, frits, and soluble salts traces. This material was first developed by the ancient Egyptians to make a range of devotional gifts, including jewellery, that were laid in the tombs of the dead as part of their rites of passage. It was believed that the objects, often figures of servants, would serve their masters and mistresses in the afterlife. These pieces are a contemporary reflection on this practice of memento and utilises this material which poses a slow 'auto enamelling' process of developing colour, from the salts that develop on the clay as it dries and is subsequently fired to create a glassy glaze.

Loss-T, utilises a contemporary T-Shirt frame- to represent the body which is missing. Replaced by an iconography of pulp fiction and celestial objects.

A single piece of faience set on silver brooch frame can be exhibited with the T-frame. Or a print of the T-Frame if preferred. A brooch sits outside this framed work:
Blue planet ,brooch , 2019, Faience, silver and gold
45 Diam x 25mm depth. The brooch contains this ancient material set within a ring of 3-D printed silver that was CAD designed and built.
Works are illustrated in the catalogue (copy attached) and online (see references).

This exhibition, the first in Italy dedicated to Contemporary Devotional Jewellery, will be touring to Florence, with the collaboration of LAO Arti Orafe and Livorno at the Museum of Mediterranean Science.

• Organisation