What Remains

What Remains. Goldwork and Resin Belt

This belt explores themes of environmental fragility and material tension through a series of hand-embroidered goldwork fish encased in resin. Each fish is individually constructed using a range of traditional goldwork techniques, ensuring no two forms are the same. Some are fully encased within resin, preserving them as suspended artefacts, while others are only partially submerged, allowing the tactile presence of beads, threads and metalwork to remain physically felt.

Between each fish sits a hollow gold ring containing a fragment of plastic that has been embroidered using a tambour hook. Beaded letters and numerical figures reference words and statistics that point directly to the realities of plastic pollution within the world’s oceans, including projections that by 2050 there may be more plastic in the sea than fish. This embedding of waste material within precious forms introduces a direct confrontation between value and discard.

Through this work, traditional goldwork is recontextualised within a contemporary narrative, using resin both as a preservative and a barrier. The belt functions as wearable commentary, inviting the viewer to engage with the material richness of embroidery while confronting the environmental consequences embedded within its form.