Robin Shelton
Robin Shelton statement
There are some who know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
What is that makes a certain stone, sliver or fragment of carbon precious? Is it its nominal financial cost or does it rely more on its intrinsic, perceived value? It is important for us all to assess and ascertain what we value a little more and count what things cost a little less.
The valuable things in life are indeed not ‘things’ at all. What are of lasting value, surely, are the experiences we have, the people we share them with, the memories we hold; the fleeting deliciousness of the present moment.
Through my work as a jewellery maker, I wish to suggest that it’s helpful to attach more weight – more value – to the seemingly insignificant pebble or smoothed gem of glass we found that wind-whipped, turbulent day spent walking along that almost deserted stretch of sand and seaweed than we should to an anonymous gemstone cut by an unknown, underpaid hand. My jewellery celebrates the insouciance and the humility displayed by these gems, promoting them to precious status.
Our eye is drawn by a particular voluptuousness or radius of a pebble, the milky-white and pitted translucence created by years of wear to a once-sharp shard or a curiously dismembered fragment of a once-useful item for a reason. Sometimes we don’t quite understand why, but the seemingly valueless objects we choose to rescue from oblivion, spurning others, can sometimes tell just as much – often more – of a story than anything that can be bought.
That is when these pieces of flotsam can become truly priceless and when they attain their highest value.
