Tim Noble and Sue Webster are probably best-known for their silhouette sculptures – light projections on to piles of trash that create shadow silhouettes of themselves.
These, and their fairground light sculptures, both much favoured by Charles Saatchi in years gone by, can now sell for more than £100,000. This Christmas, however, Noble and Webster have collaborated with artists' jewellery dealer, Louisa Guinness, to produce something more affordable.
Artists' jewellery has an extremely respectable pedigree. Masters in the 20th century included Picasso, Georges Braque, Man Ray and Alexander Calder. The Louisa Guinness gallery extends this tradition into the 21st century with works by Antony Gormley, Gavin Turk, Anish Kapoor and Sam Taylor Wood.
Two years ago, Noble and Webster joined the Guinness stable with a range of white and yellow gold jewellery in small editions that were priced upwards of £5,000 each. Now they have produced 100 pairs of silver cufflinks at £845 each.
The cufflinks, in the shape of skulls and bones with pigeon blood rubies in the eye sockets, are derived from Noble's experience working for his mother, who is a jeweller. As a teenager, he made a model of a skull based on a Mexican death's head, which his mother cast in silver for a ring. When he met Sue Webster, his future partner, she liked the ring so much that Noble's mother made another one for her. Now, years later, they have used the same mould to make the cufflinks.
