The focus of my body of work lies on the function of jewellery as a wearable reminder of healing and the responsibility for taking care of ourselves. I circled around the question of how the reminding can take place by looking at different sociological and philosophical theories on how and why we engage with objects. I also researched tattooing and scarification traditions that humans created for protective reasons on physical as well as magical levels. Tattoos, scarifications and brandings create pain in a controlled and ritualised setting without altering body functions. I am interested in how this connects to healing: the painful experience is supposed to have transforming powers.

I chose wood as my base material because it has interesting similarities to the human body. Trees have joints and a skin-like bark which can become scarred and the trunk grows in a shape that seems to contain a human body. I have applied my findings to pieces of wood that I cut, burned, sliced, pricked and tattooed. One can see and feel the changes that the dots and cuts left behind. In a ritualised, disciplined and repetitive work process I made a series of necklaces. The direct connection to the body, and the placement on the chest or belly communicates in an intimate, yet visible way to the wearer and the public. The transformation my jewellery pieces undergo is aggressive, yet resolved to a point that exposes a beauty inherent to the process and to the outcome. This beauty is important to me as it makes the rigorous process more accessible. It is here that one can be reminded of the possibility of healing and growing after a painful experience.