“Everybody has a story about jewellery - even if they don't like jewellery” explains Deedee Cuddihy, journalist and curator of the Glasgow Jewellery Project exhibition which is touring libraries in Glasgow from now until March 2005.

The exhibition celebrates, in words and images, the Glaswegian love of  jewellery. It features more than fifty photographs and quotes from the jewellery-wearing public in Glasgow and also includes contributions from designers, sellers, a pawn broker and even Strathclyde Police.

People  featured range from the toddler son of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, with his special gold Christening bangles, to the 90-year-old resident of a senior citizens’ home and her collection of vintage Poppit Beads from the 1950s.

Sandi Wang (Glasgow Chinese School): “I only wear jewellery that is special to me; like my wooden fish pendant. I’m a pisces which is usually represented by two fish so my pendant - which only has one - means I am still in search of my other half.”

The Project came about as a result of a brain wave by Deedee who wanted to find a way to extend the life of an article, and hit on the idea of turning it into an exhibition.  She wanted it to be a non-threatening exhibition and decided it would be more suitable for libraries than museums.   

“Also, I wouldn't want to interview celebrities for these shows - it would be what so-called ordinary people thought about things - because so often ordinary people have more interesting things to say" she explains.

The subject of the exhibition was inspired by the late Mrs. Anne Hull Grundy who left over 1000 pieces of antique jewellery from her vast collection to the City of Glasgow.

William Campbell, pawn broker: “People pawning jewellery that’s worth a fortune and not coming back for it?  That never happens. The good stuff always goes back to its owner.”

Pupils from Arden Primary School on the south side of the city then played an important role in the creation of the exhibition. Their school was chosen because  the pupils had visited a Travelling Gallery jewellery exhibition about Jack Cunningham's jewellery and had really liked it.

The children carried out research, contributed stories, visited the Roger Billcliffe Gallery where Lynn Park spoke to them about contemporary jewellery and took part in jewellery-making workshops with designer, Justine Fuller. They invited the Lord Provost, Liz Cameron, to the school where they saw her chain of office and interviewed her about her own jewellery preferences. “Of course I like jewellery!” she said. “After all - I’m a woman!”

Aisha Tasneen: “I began wearing a few bangles after another Asian woman chided me for not having any. The problem is, if I forget to take them off before I go to bed, the jangling sometimes wakes me up when I move my arm.”

Deedee says “It's contemporary jewellery in its widest sense - jewellery that kids wear, that teenagers wear, that the attendent at the ladies public toilet in St.Vincent Street wears.”

The exhibition comes from Glasgow Museums’ Education Department and has been managed by Museums’ Education Officer, Anne Wallace, supported by the Scottish Arts Council and designed by Bell Graphic. 

The exhibition will spend a month at the following libraries:  November at Hillhead Library, December at Partick Library, January 2005 at Woodside Library, February at Ibrox Library and March at Langside Library.  The libraries are open Mon and Tues, 10am - 8pm; Wed 10am - 5pm; Thurs. 12 - 8pm; Fri and Sat 9am - 5pm.

People who see the exhibition and want to share their own stories about jewellery can email them to Glasgowjewel@aol.com
 
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