For John Moore, when it comes to designing jewellery, it all ‘starts with the figure, then negative space. An earring has air all around it, whereas a necklace is sitting against a chest – there are different ways to exploit those areas of the body to maximum effect.’ After that, ‘the movement gives life to something’. In keeping with his connection to nature, John sees each piece as work in progress: ‘it’s like survival of the fittest – if you hit on something good it can take you on a new direction or avenue… I see it like your planting seeds for the future.’
While at university, John was introduced to aluminium by makers Jane Adam and Gunilla Treen. Not only was the cheap metal student-loan friendly and wearable, it was also receptive to dyeing and experimentation. Most importantly, it did not plunder the natural world he’d sought so much inspiration from. ‘I remember playing about in my kitchen in my shared house with pots and pans on the stove heating up fabric dye and chucking in different things from the kitchen cupboards – it was like George’s Marvellous Medicine!’
These early experimentations shaped his practice and his commitment to producing work that ‘makes the wearer feel good… celebrating the human form and expressing feeling. That’s why colour is so important.’
The big, dramatic, colourful pieces the jewellery artist makes today have long been in his consciousness – some for decades – but financial stability hasn’t always been easy to navigate. ‘You water things down to make cheaply and sell – and in doing so become unhappy and bored. You become a slave to a group of work and it becomes hard to break away from that.’
Thankfully, a commission for a large, colourful piece of art jewellery from collector Tuan Lee in 2010 provided the ‘eureka moment’ he needed; ‘I felt so liberated; it was like she’d given me permission to do that…. From then it was a process of trying to shift the balance from making bits and bobs for £50 to taking more creative risks and making larger pieces – there are fewer people out there who want to buy it, but it takes on a life of its own.’