About
Artist Biography
Kate White is a jeweller and multidisciplinary artist based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her studio practice includes contemporary exhibition, custom, and production jewellery. She is a juried member of Craft NB and a graduate of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design with a Certificate of Graduate Studies, Diploma in Fine Craft: Jewellery/Metal Arts, and Foundation Visual Arts Certificate. She received a Bachelors of Applied Arts from University of New Brunswick in 2015.
As an emerging jeweller/metalsmith and multidisciplinary artist, Kate has already begun establishing her presence in the field of fine craft. In 2017, she was awarded the Arts & Infrastructure Grant for New and Emerging Artists from ArtsNB. She also participated in Craft NB Beneath the Surface artist residency and exhibition that year.
In 2016, Kate was selected as a finalist in the 2016 Giovanni Vaccaro Family Scholarship and her work was exhibited at Canadian Jewellery Expos in Edmonton and Toronto during the summer 2016. In 2015 she was awarded Best in Concept (Student Category) at the juried national Great White North Exhibition: Group of Seven. The juried national exhibition, formerly known as Zilberschmuck, is now organized by 18Karat Gallery in Toronto. The reversible hinged bracelet, In the Narrows, was featured in an editorial about the exhibition published in Jewellery Business Magazine August 2015 Edition. She launched Sterling Gale Metalworks in 2015 through a business accelerator program called The Summer Institute at UNB.
During her academic studies, Kate's work exhibited at several NBCCD group shows (Hammered 2014, Sterling 2015, and Sterling 2016) at The Government House, the residence of New Brunswick's Governors and Lieutenant-Governors. She has also exhibited her graduate studies body of work at The George Fry Gallery in the multi-disciplinary group show, Narrative 2016.
Since the beginning of her creative career path journey in 2012, Kate has regularly contributed paintings and jewellery to a local Fredericton, NB children's charity silent art auction at Isaac's Way Restaurant. The auction proceeds fund lessons in the arts for underprivileged local children, a cause she feels strongly connected to.
Kate's work can be found at various galleries across the maritimes. She can be directly reached via email: sterlinggalemetalworks@gmail.com.
Artist Statement
In my work, I often strive to balance bold organic weatherworn surface embellishments harmoniously with or within delicate minimalist designs.
My rough-yet-refined style reflects the beauty created by natural phenomena of the earth such as meteorological, geological, chemical, and biological processes. I try to reflect the beautiful effects created in nature by things such as weather, erosion, tidal flow, decay, rusting, and pressure in a simplified form.
I feel connected to this aesthetic because it visually represents a metaphorical beauty that is the act of withstanding harsh elements by virtue of perseverance, resilience, and integrity. The ways nature, both physical and human, endure and thrive under extreme conditions and unfavourable circumstances inspires me.
This philosophy provides me comfort as I adapt to uncontrollable forces within my own life. I am continually learning, growing, and trying to find meaning and purpose to my life as I learn how to cope with chronic health issues due to endometriosis, chronic migraines, and a rare inner ear condition called Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome.
My creative process is expressive, intuitive, and meditative. Dealing with the effects of these conditions, all which can be managed but not cured, sometimes makes me feel helpless. My artistic practice plays a significant role in my healing process and provides me with an empowering voice and medium through which I can find meaning and beauty in the conditions and events in my life which are difficult to make sense of.
I push the limits of my materials by carefully over-exposing them to extreme elements such as heat, pressure, and oxidation by using tools such as my torch, hammers, rolling mill, and patinas. I embrace the somewhat unpredictable outcomes and mindfully adapt my perspective in order to find the beauty in the imperfections of the outcomes. I embrace the resulting textures, forms, and elements and design from them. This process helps me find a calm within the chaos within my own life.
-Kate White
Collections:
Allegory
A series of stone settings, inspired during a personal pursuit of healing and wellness during recovery following surgery, created using the lost-wax casting technique. Each setting is hand-carved in wax to uniquely embrace each handpicked stone and then casted in sterling silver
Anchorage
A series of unique kinetic "washboard" fidget pendants, originally created from a mold using 3D printing technology, and then altered and casted in sterling silver using the lost-wax casting method. This collection also includes hand-fabricated spinner/meditation rings
Ashore
The Ashore collection features a molten texture which resembles the flux between a solid and liquid state. Originally created by fusing molten brass to sterling silver, this collection is inspired by the ocean's shore, where land and sea meet.
Brass Circles
The Brass Circles Collection features brass links fused with sterling silver, which are then hammered and oxidized to bring out the subtle hammered texturing. A simple yet classic style, with the warm hues of the brass contrasted by the bright light-catching silver accents, creates a unique elegant look with a rustic flare.Bronze Rectangles / Bronze Triangles
The Bronze Rectangles Collection features hammered bronze rectangles fused with sterling silver, which are then hammered and oxidized to bring out the subtle hammered texturing. A classic design, with the warm hues of the bronze contrasted by the bright light-catching silver accents, creates a unique elegant look with a rustic flare.
Capstan
Kisby
A kisby ring is a ring shaped life buoy designed to be thrown to a person in water to provide buoyancy to prevent drowning. The kisby ring, also known as ‘kisbie’ or ‘kisbee’, is named after the inventor, Thomas Kisbee. A kisby ring usually has a connecting line allowing a person to be pulled in to safety. This hand-forged spinner ring is inspired by the life saving apparatus which it is named after. It symbolizes the value of reaching out to those in need and embracing the kinds of relationships which keep us afloat through rough waters.
Maritime Bough
Originally hand-carved in wax and casted into silver using the lost-wax casting technique, this ring is reminiscent of both land and sea. The texture and form of this ring is inspired by both the bough (branch) of a tree and the breaking waves created by the bow of a ship breaking water at sea. There is nothing like the feeling when wandering in the forest amidst the trees and along the coastline, venturing into the waves. This ring is perfect for those who feel deeply connected to the land and sea.
Perseverance
Resilient Edge
The Resilient Edge Collection features radiant undulating edges created with a hammer, which symbolizes resilience within ourselves. The quality of resilience means being able to withstand or recover from difficult conditions. The metal itself maintains its shape, although changed by its experience, which represents the strength within ourselves to endure and bounce back from the uncontrollable overwhelming elements in our lives. The beauty is created from the metal withstanding and adapting to destructive external pressures. We bend but we don't break. This collection honours our resilient edge.Reticulated Rod
The term reticulate refers to something which resembles a net or network, such as the veins, fibres, or crossing lines in a leaf of a plant. It can also refer to a formation of a new species throughhybridization. This minimalist collection, which directly evolved from the Capstan Collection, is created by heating the silver to a near-melting state. This causes the fine silver to rise to the surface. The piece is repeatedly feathered with the flame, which is quickly moved away before the piece reaches its melting point. As it cools, a beautiful intricate organic pattern remains on the surface, which often resembles the reticulation visible on plant leafs when examined closely. Although very plant-like, this simple and elegant collection is actually inspired by the unique weatherworn nautical textures of rusting anchors and metal.
Soaring
Delicate patterns created using real bird feathers imprinted into the metal
The Narrows
Wood Gems
The Wood Gem Collection features individually and uniquely hand-carved ebony wood made to look like faceted gemstones and crystals. They are untreated, all-natural, and lightweight. Each one is unique and comes on a sterling silver rope chain.