About the Artist

Ali is a Canadian from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia. She is inspired by the sea, its beauty, and its power. The jewellery of Tilted Anchor reflects that love of nature through the personification of old anchors, put to rest on land; their surfaces weathered from a lifetime of endeavor with the sea, their bodies tilted in an uneasy, eternal repose. 

The core concepts are founded on keen observation and appreciation for the natural cycles of the seasons, and a heartfelt sensitivity to the beauty objects accrue from use, and the inevitable passage of time.

She’s traveled the world to study her craft – in Italy, Korea, Canada, and India – and has lived in Ireland, Japan, and San Francisco. Now, she (and her studio) are in Pezénas, a small village in the South of France. 

She welcomes visitors to her atelier by appointment or during her artist hours, to learn more about how each piece is made, to discuss custom commissions, and to help select the perfect jewellery piece for each client – so they can draw lasting pleasure from her work.

Inspiration

From each location in her travels, she draws inspiration as well as knowledge of local and traditional jewellery and metalworking techniques.  Much of Ali’s formal inspiration comes from the Japanese artistic philosophies of wabi-sabi and kintsugi. 

Wabi-Sabi is Japanese aesthetic that embraces the impermanence and transience of life; it nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

Kintsugi means ‘golden joinery’ in Japanese. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. It inspires Ali to showcase the details of how an object is created (instead of polishing away those details and hiding that history).

Techniques

Some of the techniques Ali uses to create her art include: 

  • Reticulation – The use of heat to create textures on the surface of silver
  • Oxidization – A treatment used to ‘blacken’ silver to create an aged or antique look. This is also used to highlight surface features created with reticulation, using contrast
  • Granulation – A jewellery technique whereby a surface is covered in granules of precious metal
  • Keumboo – An ancient Korean burnishing technique used to apply thin sheets of gold to silver