Artist: Alice Biolo – Craftspace

A dark, circular, metal object, standing on a table. Silver needles point from the edge towards the centre of the circle, but fall short, leaving a small gap in the centre. The piece appears dangerous yet contained.

Spiralling

BA Silversmithing and Jewellery Design
Glasgow School of Art

Alice is an artist and jeweller.

Alice’s conceptual, sculptural jewellery practice translates emotional processes into tangible objects. Approaching her practice as she would a therapy journal, Alice uses her creative methods to work through traumatic experiences, and the subsequent stages of understanding that follow. Through designing and making, her projects offer a way to give these distinct stages identity and form. Her pieces create a physical point of connection to private, inner feelings for their wearer, simultaneously making visible and concealing the processes of healing and recovery.

Find out more

alicebiolo

www.alicebiolo.com

Under the Skin

In:Site 2024

Alice was one of 14 artists selected to produce a participatory, drop-in workshop for a public audience at In:Site 2024. Exploring the theme of care, their workshop developed and incorporated the ideas, techniques, approaches and materials used in their own practice.

A woman smiling, looking at her hands, which are held up. She holds a piece of fabric and a needle between her hands.

Photograph by Hayley Salter

For her project, Stitched Secrets, Alice helped people to reclaim their insecurities by transferring them onto a wearable piece of art taking the form of a personalised brooch. These personal objects of beauty offered a way to acknowledge our feelings, and place them within our control.

A pair of hands holding a piece of fabric which has been shaped into a semi-sphere, with a brooch back on it. Around the hands are scissors, thread, pins, tape, and pieces of differently textured fabrics.

Close up of hands writing onto a wooden, laser cut badge back in red felt tip pen.

Semi-translucent plastic boxes containing blue, pink, purple, yellow and red spools of thread; a green-lidded tupperware box with a label on it that says 'embroidery and darning needles' and a small box containing brooch backs. Also featured are a small box of beads, safety pins, and rounds of embroidery thread.

A table covered in different coloured and textured fabrics, and a large box of embroidery threads. The lid has been inverted, and holds variously coloured embroidery threads cut into smaller strands. A woman sitting at the table is threading a needle, and constructing an abstract brooch which lies on the table in front of her.

Photographs by Hayley Salter