Formal Research

Born in Bangkok and currently based in Eindhoven, Noon Passama graduated from the Jewellery Design department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and gained her MA in Fashion Strategy at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem.

Passama is interested in archetypal and classical structures of jewellery and how they can be challenged in form, material, and technique. She approaches jewellery design as a system of logic translated into form.

Her Formal Research project initially focused on one type of jewellery: the chain. Passama systematically explores the shape of each chain link and how it connects to its neighbouring link. The result is a series of chain necklaces and one-off, hand-sculpted bracelets.

The Formal Research necklaces inform Passama’s new works, whereby shapes – transformed over time or through the process of sculpting – go unquestioned and are accepted for how they turn out. Test pieces become the end product and vice versa.