Egle Banyte LSDC

Egle Banyte is a jewellery maker based in Belfast. Egle's work is inspired by her youth in rural Lithuania, Baltic tradition, Constructivism, and Northern European aesthetics. Her work is handmade using traditional techniques and materials, yet manifesting a contemporary style.

In 2018, Egle was awarded a Goldsmiths’ Company Precious Metal Grant, the New Designers Goldsmiths’ Company Jewellery Award and a Future Makers Award by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland.

The aim of Egle's work is to create jewellery which from the outside looks like a simple geometrical form but when opened, move, lift, and transform. She wants her pieces to reveal themselves slowly, confounding expectation by offering simple, geometrical satisfaction, and only then to offer new possibilities through the mobility and adaptability of the object.

Egle also wants to make explicit that the jewellery she creates relies on the wearer. Her pieces change in response to what the wearer does with them; how the hinged pieces sit or are placed on a body imports the quality of the wearer. Her pieces aim to be an interaction with the individual wearer rather than a museum piece deprived of mobility.

Education

2016 – 2018 – BA Hons Ceramics, Jewellery and Silversmithing | Ulster University, Belfast

2015 – 2016 – BA Hons Textile Art, Design and Fashion | Ulster University, Belfast

Courses & Training

July 2017 – The Goldsmiths’ Company Undergraduate Summer School | The Goldsmiths’ Centre, London

August 2018 - Work Experience at The Goldsmiths' Company | The Goldsmiths’ Centre, London

Grants, Awards & Scholarships

2018 – New Designers Goldsmiths' Company Jewellery Award

2018 – Future Makers Materials Support Award, Design & Crafts Council of Ireland

2018 – The Goldsmiths’ Company Precious Metal Grant

Exhibitions

June 2018 – New Designers | Business Design Centre, London

June 2018 – Graduation Show | Ulster University, Belfast

March 2017 – Made 2017, The Craft & Design Collective’s Annual Exhibition | Space CRAFT, Belfast