England-based jeweler Joan MacKarell comes from a farming background and spent her childhood in the North Atlantic Irish landscape of ancient rocks and wild seas. “Memory and Place” is a continuing theme in her work, in which she tries to resolve memories from her childhood, whether of the coastal landscape, the vanishing peatlands of Ireland, the eroded surfaces of ancient walls revealing layers of history, or the mythology of the native wildlife. Working in enamel, MacKarell develops richly textural colored surfaces interspersed with graphic marks that reflect the visual landscape of her early experiences. She searches out unusually shaped semiprecious stones and beads that often show a narrative, such as picture jaspers and agates, to inspire and combine with her enamel pieces. This process of using enamel, stones, and metal echoes the ancient Celtic traditions of jewelry design.
