Artist: Danielle Laurent

The artist stands next to her artwork, which is hanging on a fence outside.

In:Site 2017
BA Jewellery Design and Related Products
Birmingham City University, School of Jewellery

Danielle is an artist based in Birmingham.

Watch Danielle’s video to find more about their In:Site commission and read an extract from the blog below.

Danielle was interested in the stories of the people buried in the Cathedral Square. Inspired by these stories and the circular motif on the Cathedral’s windows, Danielle invited the public to decorate a piece of card with images that represented them. These images were interlinked with the details of characters buried in the Square and displayed on the railings around the Square.

In 2017 we asked some of the previous year’s makers what they thought about their experience, one year one.

It was fantastic to be part of In:Site as a recent graduate.  Since it is a paid opportunity, it gave me real world experience in researching a brief, designing an interactive project and submitting a proposal.  The Craftspace team were wonderfully supportive in helping me to realise my project aspirations.

Since my involvement with In:Site, I have registered as a sole trader and begun to seriously set up my jewellery business.  I have exhibited and sold my work at Lustre and recently begun an 8 month Artist Fellowship with the Midlands Arts Centre.

cardboard circles are decorated with bright pens and fixed together like chainmail.

Since In:Site 2017

Danielle has been involved in many projects. She took part in the Craft Fellowship programme at MAC Birmingham. We were consultants on this project: over nine months, five graduates from Midlands craft degree courses undertook a programme of professional development and skills-building to prepare for their own practice. Read more about the programme and access lots of resources here.

Recently Danielle’s practice has moved away from jewellery but not from making.  Her focus now is combining mindfulness and making as an alternative way to build mindfulness skills outside of meditation.  She is developing a website, Making Blue Sky.

Sitting meditation was a struggle for me, but using movements like walking, stitching and drawing in a meditative and mindful way made sense to me and even felt like a fun thing to practice.  I found that the more I practiced these mindful moments, the easier it was to use them throughout the day.  It even helped me to manage my anxiety.  Out of this experience, I created Making Blue Sky as a way to share how mindfulness and creativity can be combined as a fun way to slow down and reconnect with yourself while building mindfulness skills.

A bright abstract embroidery: a yellow circle, with orange, blue nd red shapes embroidered.

New work by Danielle.

Celebrating 10 years of In:Site

To celebrate 10 years of In:Site we selected 10 makers from the archive to feature on our new online space for the project. You can still view all of the makers from 2012-2021 in the blog archive.



Where Next?

Artist: Francisca Onumah

Francisca was part of In:Site 2014

The artists uses a hammer to stamp metal.

Artist: Jessica Hargreaves

Jessica was part of In:Site 2015

The artist crouches over a memorial stone as she takes a casting.

Artist: Ryan Dilkes

Ry was part of In:Site 2019

The artist sits on a bench surrounded by furniture made from discarded wood.

Artist: Stefanie Cheong

Stefanie was part of In:Site 2013.

A pine cone with gold decoration on a string.


Instagram



We use cookies. By browsing our site you agree to our use of cookies, Find out more