Architectonic jewellery

[3] At the time, the majority of jewellery was produced by luxury brand names such as Cartier, Bulgari, and Tiffany; these pieces were intended to serve as status symbols or investments rather than as artistic expressions.

[4] Individual artisan jewellers working from smaller studios began to move away from the traditional, formal styles produced by these luxury brands.

Encouraged by clientele with self-made wealth, and less formal, more modern tastes, these jewellers began to deliberately break from the stylistic limitations of old.

Schocken described her pieces as "linear machines," further explaining that "movement plays an important part...[it] gives the brooch a life of its own even when not being worn...but when being held.

For example, pieces created by Margaret de Patta, such as the brooch pictured, often include transparent elements that serve as "windows" to opaque structures lying beneath.

For example, English jeweler Gerda Flockinger would melt down the surfaces of her pieces to create unusual textures typically not seen in traditional jewellery.

[4] A 1999 article in Modern Silver magazine described how Patricia Tormey "slammed molten gold between layers of textured charcoal and dropped it into a tray of lentils.