Nora Fok
"When worn this piece sparkles with the movement of the wrist, when off the body it appears as if it is floating in space."
"We had one in our garden for many years; this beautiful tree not only gives us a brilliant colour display in Autumn, its flowers are spectacular during the Summer too."
"I found a single seed among the lentils; its ridges were deep and patterned, perfect geometry in miniature."
"A faint variable star that undergoes an explosion and fast increase of luminosity, decreasing to its original luminosity in months or years." - The Collins English Dictionary<br>Private Collection
"The 1969 moon landing when astronaut Neil Armstrong took the photograph of the Earth from the moon -- it was magical!"<br>Private Collection
"I was playing with the idea of the Elizabethan style ruff. I used the figure eight motif, suggested by the side of the ruff, as the idea for bending my woven loop ribbon into a continuous irregular figure eight pattern for my collar."
"One of my favourite flowers, its overlapping petals formed the structure of this neckpiece, which retains the spirit of the flower."
"Like sunken amphorae, urn shaped ascidian only an inch and a half tall placidly filter plankton from the sea."
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Nora Fok meticulously fabricates jewelry from pigmented nylon monofilament as well as Linlon, Fok’s term for linen and nylon monofilament mixed thread developed by the artist with a grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Using a variety of textile techniques, the work is knitted, knotted, woven, tied and looped into necklaces, earrings, rings, and bracelets: ethereal dream-like wonders that evoke fragility, despite sturdiness and wearability. The presence of natural botanicals, found objects and even mathematical problems is the inspiration for her work.
Fok is a recipient of the prestigious Jerwood Applied Arts Prize (2007) and her work was most recently exhibited at The Mint Museum in North Carolina as part of the exhibition, Body Embellishment, where she hosted workshops and lectures. Her work was also featured at the Racine Art Museum as a part of the exhibition, (in)Organic.
Statement
Most people think of linen as a woven material of fine quality. Linen cloth has been in existence for thousands of years and was considered by the Egyptians as a noble material. I had never used linen as a material in my work before, so I did a lot of research, and grew some of my own as an experiment. I studied the processing techniques, then tried twisting the flax fibres to make linen threads by hand. My aim was to explore possibilities of using this natural vegetable fibre. I used all parts of the flax to highlight the versatility and beauty of this plant. I also mixed linen yarn/fibre with fine nylon to give linen a “body” for wearable adornments and sculptures.
Selected Collections
- The Alice and Lois Koch Collection
- Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, United Kingdom
- City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Cleveland County Museum, Shelby, NC
- Crafts Council, London, United Kingdom
- Museum fur Kunst and Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN










