Brooch thumbnail 1
Brooch thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery

Brooch

2007-2008 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This brooch is part of a series of enamelled iron wire brooches begun in 2000. For these pieces Dittlmann does not start from drawings, but allows the dense structure and layered geometric patterning to develop as she works. The result is a supreme combination of delicacy and strength, the complexity yet regularity of the forms reminiscent of structures within nature. Both the construction and the enamelling are highly laborious processes, with over fifty coats of the enamel being separately applied and fired.

Bettina Dittlmann trained as a silversmith at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Glas und Schmuck in Neugablonz, and as a goldsmith at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich under Professors Hermann Jünger and Otto Künzli.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Iron binding wire and enamel
Brief description
Brooch, enamelled iron, Bettina Dittmann, Germany, 2007-8
Physical description
Dome-like structure of densely-layered repeating shapes made of iron wire covered in matt, granular red enamel.
Dimensions
  • Height: 57mm
  • Diameter: 69mm
Marks and inscriptions
Unmarked
Summary
This brooch is part of a series of enamelled iron wire brooches begun in 2000. For these pieces Dittlmann does not start from drawings, but allows the dense structure and layered geometric patterning to develop as she works. The result is a supreme combination of delicacy and strength, the complexity yet regularity of the forms reminiscent of structures within nature. Both the construction and the enamelling are highly laborious processes, with over fifty coats of the enamel being separately applied and fired.

Bettina Dittlmann trained as a silversmith at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Glas und Schmuck in Neugablonz, and as a goldsmith at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich under Professors Hermann Jünger and Otto Künzli.
Collection
Accession number
M.30-2009

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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