Oyster shells grow slowly; they are bearers of time, filtering the substances and stories of their waterways, in, and out. Long synonymous with luxury and preciousness they are lain in beds of salt upon the tables of the finest restaurants, and vessels for the growth of shimmering pearls. After the consumption of their bounty, the shells of oysters, and the histories imbued within, are discarded.
Mother of Pearl is a suite of contemporary jewellery and objects crafted with oysters collected from the place where the artist’s mother’s ashes were scattered, reflecting on place and honouring the life ingrained within the strata of each shell.
Gabbee Stolp is an artist and jeweller based in the Derwent Valley, lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work examines material, memory and place, evoking biological and metaphysical themes including grief, loss and human-induced extinction. Gabbee creates gentle tools with which to reflect on time and change and the way our human lives are invariably connected to the deep history and ecology of the places we live.