Marlene McKibbin & Alison White

Marlene McKibbin is a jewellery designer who relishes how materials respond to her working methods. She has been making contemporary jewellery for over three decades, after training at Ulster College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She is known for her beautifully coloured, timeless, acrylic Jewellery in which she uses the refractive planes of light, applying details of colour to emphasis angles. For the last 15 years she has also worked extensively in gold and stainless steel, using the latter’s strength and flexibility to make light weight, architectural structures for the body. She designs simple fluid pieces without unnecessary embelishments, for easy to wear everyday jewellery. 

Meanwhile, Alison White started her practice in the 1990’s and successfully launched her first range of screens, lights and blinds at 100% Design. Her background in printed textiles has been the basis of her interest today, in exploring the surface and transparency of materials, particularly the way they are affected by light. 

Alison And Marlene, Future Heritage 2018 Alumni

McKibbin has exhibited and sold her collections around the world and her work is in many major public collections such as the V&A, Aberdeen Art Gallery, the National Museum of Scotland, the British Council Collection and the MIMA Cleveland Contemporary Collection. For some years she has exhibited regularly with Alison White a textile and blinds designer.

White developed an initial collection of screens using cut paper, which highlighted surface texture and shadow. The screens led her to design and also utilise other existing functional objects that she felt would best demonstrate these qualities. Perorated blinds were a natural follow-on to the screens; the perfect object to manipulate light, a ready-made canvas. White designs and makes prototypes in her studio, which are then produced by manufacturers.  

A chance meeting of the two makers led to a mutual admiration of each other’s work and a discussion about the possibility of working together. Linking their combined aesthetic of colour and shapes, they designed a collection of printed scarves and jewellery; they show their new collections annually. Working with one another has afforded both makers the opportunity to experiment and develop new ideas. Their collaboration helped White to rediscover and use print and colour in her work, as well as allowing her to move away from the constraints of batch production. 

Alison and Marlene, Future Heritage Project

At Future Heritage

At the suggestion of Corinne Julius who had noted the synergy of their work, particularly with regard to colour, Marlene KcKibbin and Alison White combined their design skills further to produce a series of lamps especially for Future Heritage. McKibbin’s use of coloured, translucent, acrylic rods was paired with Alison White’s perforated textile. White’s signature perforations in the shades and colours of print combined with the translucent quality of McKibbin’s acrylic rods, were perfectly suited to be used with an electric light source.  

“Future Heritage gave us an exciting insight into how collaborative design can throw up many new directions of thought and applications. Alison and I intend to continue collaborating.” - Marlene McKibbin

Current work

Marlene KcKibbin and Alison White have designed a new studio and living area. White has designed several new ranges of perforated blinds. She is currently working with the manufacturer Blind Fashion to launch new blackout blinds, ‘Stellar Blinds,’ which simulate the night sky. In addition she is working on another collection with McKibbin to be launched at the end of 2020.

Alison White Skylight Shadow

To find out more about Marlene McKibbin and Alison White visit their website. If you would like to make an enquiry about commissions, get in touch here.