Sorrel Van Allen

Sorrel Van Allen is an award-winning contemporary jewellery and object maker with a background in red seal welding and artistic blacksmithing. She has studied jewellery and metals at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada, and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland, receiving her BFA in 2020. After graduation, Sorrel completed a year-long residential silversmithing program at Bishopsland Educational Trust, Oxfordshire, U.K. and was awarded the nine-month metal airCraft residency at Centre for Craft Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada.

Beginning with a flat sheet, Sorrel forms and fabricates metal into delicate hollow objects. She creates a unique visual language through intricate surface marks and patination. Fascinated with developing repetitive patterns and textures, she uses botany as inspiration for her jewellery and object designs. Each piece is cut in metal and then bent and overlapped, in a similar method to origami, to create lightweight forms. The addition of bright pigments, Keum-Boo (attached gold) or subtle oxidizations accentuate the simple elegance found in these repetitive works. Sorrel is currently a Kjipuktuk/Halifax based artist, educator, and active member of the Canadian art jewellery community.