FRAGILITY
Julie Usel
Switzerland

This work explores fragility as both a material and emotional condition — a state where tension, delicacy, and resilience meet. Made of paper-thin silver elements, each piece is carefully sawn and sewn onto a silk background, allowing it to move, dangle, and gently collide. Together they create a soft, fragile sound — a whisper of contact, like tiny shards of glass brushing against each other. This quiet movement and trembling surface hold both vulnerability and presence.
The necklace forms a loose, shimmering mass — light yet dense, delicate yet insistent — always on the edge of movement, of unraveling. Each fragment keeps its own identity while contributing to a fragile balance, a form held together through connection and care.
In dialogue with “Fragility” as a human experience, the piece reflects on the boundaries between strength and tenderness, presence and disappearance. Fragility here is not a weakness, but a sensitivity — being aware of every small movement and connection.

Necklace « Shimmering sound », 2025
220 x 110 x 5 mm / 20 gr
Silver 925, silk
Sawing, Embroidery

More « FRAGILITY »

Fragility – Einav Benzano / France

FRAGILITYEinav BenzanoFranceThis project contemplates HOME as a fragile talisman — a place that shelters and soothes, yet trembles with vulnerability and uncertainty. The pieces are made from mop floorcloth, a material that unravels thread by thread when touched. To...

Fragility – Esteban Erosky / Spain

FRAGILITYEsteban EroskySpainWhen our weaknesses, traumas, flaws, or idiosyncrasies are exposed, we become fragile. We go from feeling secure to feeling insecure, to being vulnerable. Always showing ourselves makes us feel insecure, which is why in my pieces I address...

Fragility – Alicia Salcedo / Spain

FRAGILITYAlicia SalcedoSpainProtecting ourselves, seeking refuge, the shell as armor, as protection, as home.The shell that once sheltered its own life now collects a foreign element. A being that occupies an empty space previously inhabited. But it also wears away,...

Fragility – Malene Kastalje / Denmark

FRAGILITYMalene KastaljeDenmarkIt was after the storm. I watched myself in the brown puddle of water. Unrecognizable. A cloud moved behind me. A bit of wind and the surface trembled, scattering my face and folding it into small, moving pieces. The ground was still...

Fragility – Ani Flys / Spain

FRAGILITYAni FlysSpainThe "Whirlwinds" series traces fragility as both a material and a state of mind. Using broken eggshells, the work explores how what is delicate and easily fractured can, when gathered, form unexpected strength and coherence. Each fragment, once...

Fragility – Katerina Jirsova / Czech Republic

FRAGILITYKaterina JirsovaCzech RepublicThese necklaces continue my ongoing exploration of the dialogue between the body, the object, and the space we inhabit. Crafted from white chalk, they carry the qualities of softness, fragility, and impermanence – a material that...

Fragility – Maud Traon / UK

FRAGILITYMaud TraonUnited KingdomMaud Traon’s jewellery examines the paradox of fragility — the tension between resilience and delicacy. Her sculptural forms, with their molten-like surfaces and embedded fragments, invite us to see beauty not as perfection but as a...

Fragility – Daye Kim / UK

FRAGILITYDaye KimUnited KingdomSibling relationships exist at the fragile intersection of intimacy and distance. Derived from sib (kinship) and sibja (blood + "one's own"), "sibling" embodies a paradox: they are extensions of ourselves yet wholly separate. This...

Fragility – Anne Blok / Netherlands

FRAGILITYAnne BlokNetherlandsThe fragile threads of memory Life is fragile; it is temporary and precious. This brooch tells the story of a young life, life in the bud and the rose that never reached full bloom. The brooch tells the story of a thirteen year-old girl....

Fragility – Juan Riusech / Spain

FRAGILITYJuan RiusechSpainAnd if the most fragile thing was our society ? What could happen if we go back to the dark Mid Age ? Brooch “Medieval II”, 2024100 x 150 x 7 mm / 36 grPLA, steelHand 3D printed, constructedMore "FRAGILITY"