London based contemporary jewellery artist Michelle Lung is passionate about developing materials and new techniques. She tries to stay current and create in response to the state of society and culture around her in real time.

During her time on the BA Jewellery Design Course at Central Saint Martins, she was working towards work that gave a glimpse at a possible new age of jewellery (from her perspective). Where traditional ideas of preciousness and grandeur in the sense of materiality held within typical jewellery materials gemstones, precious materials are not necessarily vital. Instead, she aimed to create a collection made completely of non-precious materials that are normally associated with jewellery, resulting in more fashion jewellery pieces that are to be considered sculptural art forms in their own right.

Her graduate collection explores the untouchability of the digital age we are undoubtedly surrounded by today. Typically, within the jewellery world a huge amount of value is placed on materiality or precious materials. However, we also place a lot of value in our digital data too. Michelle’s pieces aim to represent the dip between reality and virtual reality where although you may see them ‘worn’ on the body, the forms depicted within the transparent acrylic are actually false illusions made completely of negative space. The wearer can never make direct skin contact with the form suspended within, much like how we cannot reach out and touch our non-physical data that we rely on daily.