“This animated body of work responds to how nature adapts to changes in the environment. The result is my own version of nature, imagined and stitched together – inspired by the rural landscape in which I live, and the ocean shores and rock pools I explored as a child. “

Wheeler’s sculptural jewellery and hollow-ware* has been made with silver, porcelain, paper, and thread. Often, these materials have been camouflaged; a layer of white paint creates a kind of “skin” for the richly textured objects and references shell or bone. Fragile ceramic extrusions are combined with delicately glazed components – producing surfaces which alternate between matt and gloss.

In stark contrast to the curious ‘bleached’ fossil-like works – the accompanying ink drawings are bright and ‘alive’, depicting strangely bird-like forms in different permutations.

*the term hollow-ware usually refers to silver serving dishes.

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Katherine Wheeler is an Australian artist, based in Castlemaine, Victoria. She graduated with a

bachelor of fine arts /gold and silversmithing at RMIT in 2007.