I am a current fourth student at the university of Dundee studying jewellery and metal design, graduating in June 2023. My honours project aims to expose the beauty in unusual skin conditions and show that jewellery can be a powerful way to start conversations around differences and peoples right to feel beautiful without judgement. The inspiration for my project stems from my love of research into art and science, especially into how I can use my own experiences to create a piece which inspires and teaches through alternate materials and interactive features.

I grew up with the skin condition vitiligo, and I want to expose the beauty of it through my jewellery and my understanding of the science behind it. This condition is an auto-immune disease which causes random white patches to appear all over the body. These patches appear differently for each sufferer, often being symmetrical on the body and appearing around orifices or high friction areas, but no two patches are the same. The cause is still unknown but its thought to be a predisposed condition that needs a trigger, for example a stressful event or too much sun exposure. This trigger then causes the persons immune system to attack the melanocytes in the skin, so the melanin can’t be produced in these areas, making the pigment disappear and white patches to appear.

I’ve gained this knowledge from skin specialists in life sciences, who I approached because I have a big interest in the skin and how this specific condition works. Talking to them taught me a lot and allowed me to see interesting imagery of the cells and random patterns of the skin under a microscope. To see skin in this way they prepare, cut and dye the skin with pinks and purples to make it visible and manageable; this process inspired me through the colours, the randomness in the order of cells and how so much is contained within a simple circle. The patterns of collections of cells are quite pleasing to the eye and reminds me of the patterns that vitiligo can cause.

My next step in research was to find designers who inspire me. I have found that I’m most interested in designers who have some relation to science, alternative materials or organic structures. Some designers include, Amy Congdon, Maria Diana, Carolyn Raff, Cheryl Eve and Iris Van Herpen. I like the way the pieces sit on the body and how they express the beauty of it, and how the organic shapes capture so much intrigue and excitement.

Neri Oxman is especially a big inspiration to me because she mixes science with materials to create ground-breaking designs with so much life and intrigue. In one of her projects, she explored the possibilities of melanin and how it can be used to show the interaction of different species. She 3D printed vessels and infused them with melanin to create a piece to connect us to life through experiencing how sunlight can alter these pieces and how this affects us personally.

The interesting experimentation that she does motivates me to try my own because I can see how amazing some pieces can become. Over my years as a jewellery student, I have played around with many materials, including, bioplastics, leaves, uv paints, resin, plastics, fabrics, foam, paper, metal and acrylic. But at the moment I am especially interested in a certain type of clay and mixing it with photochromic pigments.

I have become interested in using photochromics, because it is affected by the sun, which is one key aspect to vitiligo. Vitiligo can be triggered by the sun or uv exposure but can also be treated by it, leading me to explore the possibility of my jewellery pieces also being affected by the sun. The photochromic pigments I’ve been using have properties which allow them to change from a pure white colour to a bright pink or purple when taken outside in daylight for just a few seconds. In my eyes I see vitiligo as layers, so the bottom layer is the patch with no skin pigment and the top layer is the sections with pigment and these act as protection for the body, so working with photochromics really allows me to visually demonstrate this with just a simple stencil over the top. It also allows me to create something interactive that can be a way of teaching people about how the skin works with visual representations of the cell structures and the possible damaging effect of the sun.

Another key aspect to vitiligo is the psychological affect it has on the suffer, as living your life with such a visible condition is very difficult for people when we live in the society we do. Just going out into public can cause high anxiety as they fear the judgment and alienation because their skin looks so different from everyone else and not many people understand what it is. So, this is another aspect which I want to draw upon. Making my final pieces interactive is very important as I want them to be engaging to the viewer but also soothing to the wearer, through anxiety relieving techniques. My main target audience is people who have the condition so they can squeeze it or fiddle with it and maybe release some anxiety whilst being reminded of their own individual beauty and the amazing community that they are part of. This has led me to explore the material silk clay or foam clay, which is a substance which is easily mouldable and one that I can mix the photochromics into in an interesting way. Once this material dries its still flexible and squishy, so can be a nice material to play with and feel, so I plan to perfect this material and implement it into my final piece.

If I was to just use this clay, then I would miss using traditional jewellery techniques with silver so I will be combining silver with the clays and photochromics to create some contemporary designs. I am also drawn to the whiteish colour of silver and how it contrasts with the bright photochromics to express the condition even further. I also want my piece to have some visual likeness to vitiligo so having lots of white will expose the beauty in it. Using silver will make the piece look more professional and finished, as I do plan on having organic and random structures, so having perfected silver findings and fastenings will really bring the piece together.

My piece will aim to incorporate all of these key factors to vitiligo so that I can create something which expresses all the aspects of the condition and act as a way to teach people about it whilst showing the beauty of it. I want to create something that makes people feel comfortable in their skin and understood by others, so much so that the piece can act as a talking point for the condition and a catalyst for change.

This condition is so beautiful, but unnoticed and misunderstood, so I want try make people to fall in love with it through colour, shapes, interactions and materials which all resemble its beauty and power.