Felieke van der Leest

Felieke van der Leest

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Felieke van der Leest

Think Sustainable!

Object with necklace. Polyester/polyamide, viscose, felt), plastic animal, oxidized silver, mammoth ivory, glass beads, magnets, steel crocheted, metalwork, embroidered

Object 32 x 14 x 14 cm Necklace 17cm Edition of 4 FL embroidered on the red necklace of dinosaur

One of the biggest problems we have on this planet are environmental problems and global warming. The way people live is not very sustainable and we have to change that before it is too late. (Think Sustainable! ) The font type is inspired by the famous word “Hollywood”, situated close to where famous movies are being made. (Like Jurassic Park in 1993) The letters I made out of (legal) mammoth ivory, which is now widely available to buy because of the fast disappearance of the permafrost. Mammoths died out thousands of years ago, maybe because of global warming or they went extinct because of being hunted down by humans……or a combination of those two. The red necklace the dinosaur is wearing is a large exclamation mark. The letters stick to the dinosaur’s back because of little magnets inside.
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Felieke van der Leest

Think Sustainable! (Necklace detail)

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Felieke van der Leest

REX RING

Textile, polyester/polyamide, felt, plastic animal, oxidized silver, cubic zirconia, crocheted, metalwork

4 x 4 x 4 cm, Edition of 8, F and L engraved on silver

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is always depicted as a verocious meat eater. Rex is also the name of a famous German Shepherd police dog in the TV series “Inspector Rex”. When dogs are sick they sometimes need to wear these kind of plastic collars so they cannot harm themselves. The head is hinged to the ring an can move back and forth like when dogs are fighting over a bone.
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Felieke van der Leest

REX RING

Alternate View

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Felieke van der Leest

BRACHIOSAURUS TREE WITH UFO NEST AND ALIEN EGGS

Object with Brooch. Textile,polyester/polyamide, plastic animal, Argentium® silver, glass beads, leather, magnets. crocheted, metalwork, embroidered.

Object 31 x 31 x 20 cm Brooch 8 x 8 x 6 cm Carpet 20 x 20 x 0.5 cm Edition of 4 Signature FL engraved on nest.

In the past people never knew that the earth was inhabited for millions of years by dinosaurs. Because we have found bones we know they must have exsisted. And every day we learn more and more, but will we ever know everything? And what about aliens? They might have visited earth when the dinosaurs were around. Although we have not found their bones...yet. Maybe bones of aliens have been found but we think they are from dinosaurs. Are dinosaurs from the past aliens from the future?
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Felieke van der Leest

BRACHIOSAURUS TREE WITH UFO NEST AND ALIEN EGGS

Alternate View

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Felieke van der Leest

BRACHIOSAURUS TREE WITH UFO NEST AND ALIEN EGGS

Brooch View

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Felieke van der Leest

DUO DUPLI DIPLO

Object with earrings.

These two (Duo) Diplodocus (Diplo) dinosaurs are identical (Duplicated) Their heads are in a comic speech balloon in the shape of a heart. Are they in love and say nice things to each other ? They stand on a sort of arena (inspired by a kind of dart board) where they are boxing .... they are hugging each other. The boxing gloves are also heart shaped. Is this love ? Is this anger ? Is this loveanger?
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Felieke van der Leest

DUO DUPLI DIPLO

Earring view

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Felieke van der Leest

CUPIDOPTERYX

Necklace. Textile,Viscose,polyester, plastic animal, Argentium silver, Crochet,metalwork.

10 x 11 x 9 cm Edition of 6 Signature FL engraved on wing

Cupido + Caudipteryx. Cupid is an ancient Roman god of love often presented as a winged, naked, infant boy with bow and arrows. He shoots his arrow at people’s heart so they will fall in love. Cupidopteryx however shot the arrow through his own head.
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Felieke van der Leest

ATTENDRONOSAURUS

Object with brooch.

Attenborosaurus + Drone. The attenborosaurus is officially not a dinosaur but a member of the swimming reptile family: the plesiosaur. The attenborosaurus is named after the famous british documentary maker Sir David Attenborough. I made a combination between this animal, which swims in the water and a drone, that flies in the air. The drone propellors have the shape of screw propellor of a ship. The blue bullet shaped gem stones are of topaz.
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Felieke van der Leest

ATTENDRONOSAURUS

Alternate view

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Felieke van der Leest

HATZE GOPTERYX AND THE MYSTERY EGGS

Object with bracelet. Textile, viscose, polyester, plastic animal, oxidized silver, glass beads, cubic zirconia, magnets: crocheted, metalwork.

object 20 x 20 x 15 cm bracelet + animal 40 x 15 x 5 cmcarpet 20 x 20 x 0.5 cm, edition of 5, Signature FL engraved on last wagon

The hatzegopteryx is officially not a dinosaur but a member of the flying reptile family: the pterosaur. It is chained to a train of winged carts on which his/her eggs are lying. The eggs are half pink and half blue; is it a boy ? Is it a girl ? This hatzegopteryx has also different colored eyes: one is pink and the other is blue.
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Felieke van der Leest

HATZE GOPTERYX AND THE MYSTERY EGGS

Bracelet

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Felieke van der Leest

LUNATITIA VELOCIRAPTORINA

Brooch

Lunatic + Velociraptor + Ballerina. The velociraptor is wearing a combination of a ballet tutu and a straight jacket. As a ballerina (Velociraptorina) she is restrained in her movements to dance. Is her laugh real ? Maybe she is a happy lunatic (Lunatitia) thinking she a dancing ice cream.
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Felieke van der Leest

PACHYCEBALLOSAURUS

Object with ring. Textile,viscose, polyester),plastic animal, oxidized silver, 24kt goldplated glass beads, garnet, magnet, iron,crocheted, metalwork.

Object 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm x 8.5 cm Ring 10 cm x 10.5 x 5 cm Edition of 5 FL engraved onsilver of tail part

Pachycephalosaurus + Ball. The pachycephalosaurus is a dinosaur famous for having a large, bony dome atop its skull, like a helmet. It could be that is was used by the males to fight eachother. When I bought this toy I stuck my finger between its legs so it was a ring. I wanted to change its underground and replaced it by a ball. The ball is crocheted with 24kt goldplated seadbeads. When wearing it as a ring the ball feels very pleasant in the hand.
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Felieke van der Leest

PACHYCEBALLOSAURUS

Ring

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Felieke van der Leest

THERIZINI BLUB BLUB

Object with necklace. Silver, plastic animal, glass beads, topaz, leather,polyester, brass metalwork, embroidered

Object 24cm x 23cm x 17 cm Pendant 9.5cm x 8.5 cm x 2 cm Edition of 4 F and L engraved on underside of pendant

The therizinosaurus is relateted to the tyrannosaur family but the only one eating plants. It is standing on a carpet of water, that is embroidered with blue beads in circular water ripples. In this work I also played with the speech balloon used in comics. I combined that with a halo (religious saints have that around their heads) and the helmet an astronaut is wearing so it is able to breathe in space. Is Therizini Blub Blub preaching in air bubbles or are the small bubbles coming from the mouth his last breath before drowning?
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Felieke van der Leest

THERIZINI BLUB BLUB

Necklace view

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Felieke van der Leest

JEWELRASSIC: AN INSIDE STORY NECKLACE

Textile ,polyester/polyamide, plastic animals, oxidized silver, aluminium alloy, paper, plastic, cubic zirconia, wood, brass crocheted, metalwork, 3Dprinted, laminated

15 cm x 11 cm x 6 cm Edition of 5 Signature FL engraved on silver on backside

People who know about the history of contemporary jewellery will recognize the two necklaces the dinosaurs are wearing, therefor “An Inside Story”. The dilophosauris on the left side is wearing the necklace “Dew Drop” made by Gijs Bakker in 1982. The oviraptor on the right is wearing a collar by Emmy van Leersum in 1968. This necklace can be seen as a tribute to these two Dutch pioneers of contemporary jewellery. Both are made in the original materials, the miniatur aluminium collar by rapid prototyping.
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Felieke van der Leest

MISS UNIVERSE

Object with necklace. Textile,polyester/polyamide, viscose, plastic animal, oxidized silver, glass beads, cubic zirconia, leather, alpaca Crocheted, metalwork, embroidered, beadwork.

Dinosaur pendant 15 cm x 28cm x 16 cm Carpet 16cm x 16cm x 0.5 cm Edition of 4 FL embroidered on burka dress

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest where woman are judged by their outside beauty. On the contrary: In some countries woman wear special dresses called “burqa” which doesn’t show the female body at all. I played with these contrasts in this work. The giganotosaurus has a mounth full of sharp and dangerous teeth but they are hidden by a beaded veil. I painted the dinosaur silver to give it a more spacy look. (the color of the stars in the universe) She also wears an engagement ring with an excessively large “daimant”, which is a caricature on the rings films stars show the public when they are getting married.
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Felieke van der Leest

MISS UNIVERSE

Detail view

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Felieke van der Leest

TRICEREYEDTOPS BROOCH

Textile, polyester/polyamide, plastic animal, 14kt gold, oxidized silver, glass, meteorite (Campo Del Cielo, Argentinia), peridot crocheted, metalwork

11cm x 10cm x 6 cm Edition of 5 Signed FL on Backside

One of the best know dinosaurs is the Triceratops, known for his large bony frill and his three horns. The frill was first thought to be defensive weapons against predators, but sientist now think they were used for identification, courtship and to display dominance. Togerther with most dinosaurs it died out 66 million years ago, probably because a large meteor hit the earth. My Tricereyedtops also has three eyes, the third one prominently placed on the middle of his frill. With a “Third Eye” it is said men can see the future. The pendant the dinosaur is wearing contains a little piece of an iron meteorite found in Argentina called “Campo Del Cielo”.
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Felieke van der Leest

SPERMHEART ROCKER

Brooch. Textile, viscose, plastic animal, silver, cubic zirconia, crocheted, metalwork.

12.5 cm x 6cm x 4.5 cm Edition of 6, Fl engraved on back of guitar

I love hard rock and heavy metal music, when I was younger I played bass guitar in a gothic metal band. One of the pieces I made when I graduated from the art academy in 1996 was the pin “Spermheart”. In this work the ornithocheirus (a kind of pterosaur) is playing a metal spermheart guitar.
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Felieke van der Leest

YOGA EXTREMIST

Ring, silver, plastic animal, metalwork

5.5cm x 5cm x 2.5 cm Edition of 8 FL engraved on underside of head

Religious extremists rule the news with their terrorist attacks, but there are also other types of extremism. This Daspletosaurus is practicing extreme yoga: with his tiny arms lifting up his big head.
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“Animals have a special place in Felieke van der Leest’s heart. She provides many animals with a busy social life as ornaments, gives a select group a nice home in museums and she placed a few oversized specimens in the center of everyone’s attention in meeting rooms and stairwells. Jewellery, object or light fixture, the scale or function is not the aspect that inspires Van der Leest: the telling of unusual stories is always her main motivation.

“Van der Leest has enriched jewellery design with the introduction of textile techniques. Combining this with gold, silver and plastic, in ten years time she developed her own idiom. She drew from her childhood in Emmen where she would visit the local zoo and also from her metalsmith education in Schoonhoven. Her unbridled imagination later came to full bloom at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. For someone who normally works with hand sized pieces it is remarkable to develop monumental installations. Nevertheless, Van der Leest has already produced some ‘jewels’ for public spaces, cooperating with her cousin in Neef Nicht Design.

“A continuous flow of her work now finds its way to numerous exhibitions. In addition, it is happily collected by individuals and museums through the galleries that represent her in Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo. A great milestone was the 2006 exhibition Jewellery Fables: the museum in Middlesbrough (mima) exhibited an overview of all her work and also published an accompanying catalog.

“Apart from the obvious fun her work sometimes showes an unexpected serious side. Contemporary issues such as the environment, dealing with animals and all kinds of social problems are touched upon. In this way Van der Leest, like Jean de La Fontaine in his famous fables, shows us the other side of the coin. But her most important quality continues to be her unstoppable enthusiasm for making new pieces and the joy they give us, the spectators.”

– Ward Schrijver

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands
DSM Art Collection, Heerlen, the Netherlands
Hiko Mizuno Collection, Tokyo, Japan
International Museum of The Applied Arts Today, Torino, Italy
Kikker Museum, The Hague, the Netherlands
KODE Art Museums Bergen, Norway
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, U.K.
Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem, the Netherlands
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim, Norway
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, U.K.
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.
TextielMuseum, Tilburg, the Netherlands
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.
Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg, the Netherlands
Numerous private collections throughout the United States and internationally

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