Mary Curtis. Photo / Sarah Ivey Expand

Mary Curtis. Photo / Sarah Ivey

New Zealand's oldest contemporary jewellery gallery, Fingers, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, with a special group exhibition showcasing the creme de la creme of New Zealand's contemporary jewellery scene.

The show runs till the end of the month, and more than 30 jewellery artists are presenting new work, including Mary Curtis, who has made a selection of bold jewellery and brooches for the special show.

Curtis, who also teaches jewellery at the Manukau School of Visual Arts at MIT, has been making jewellery for 23 years, exhibiting here and overseas, and has work held in collections at the Auckland Museum and Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt.

Her work is "an exploration and celebration of the decorative possibilities found in the everyday. I treat the decorative materials I find interesting, such as fabric and wallpaper, as gemstones and make intricate and elaborate precious settings to house the forms I make from these materials".

She talks us through some of her favourite things.

1. Swan shaped measuring cups

I am not sure what era they are from but the age of the plastic and the style suggest around the 1950s. A good friend who knows my passions well found them in a second-hand shop and gave them to me as a birthday present. They fly across the bench with their backs filled with the ingredients I need - I love cooking with them.

2. My collection of dinner plates

I find it difficult to go past a second-hand shop without stopping to have a browse, and my first stop is always the kitchen section. Trade Me doesn't do it for me; I like the hunt and the joy of discovery as you fossick through the chaos and piles. I have been collecting dinner plates for about 15 years, mostly Crown Lynn and mostly from the 1950/60s.

Every dinnertime I have fun choosing what combination of plates to use.

3. Strainer collection

Or a series of small metal objects with holes in them. I have a strange fascination with the wide variety of decorative arrangements in the holes of different tea strainers and similar objects. This collection has been growing over a number of years from my second-hand shop rummaging; my husband has also found quite a few for me. I once bought a whole box of stuff in an auction just for the tea strainer. They hang on the kitchen wall.

4. Frances Hansen drawing

I have always loved Frances' work and about 10 years ago I did a swap with her and got a beautiful atmospheric drawing called Rain. The background is a deep purple wash with drawings of colander like structures that seem to catch the movement of lines that fall into them. There is such depth and mood in this work that I never tire of looking at it.