We are at a point in time where the digital is an undeniable force of innovation enmeshed within our lives. This theme focuses attention firstly on ways to produce jewellery using digital tools, secondly what it means for the field of jewellery that there is a rise in ‘wearables’ (predominantly from other fields) that impacts how we understand our physical activity, health and connection to digital devices around our homes and beyond, thirdly digital as a material as viewed through the perspective of a jeweller.

Finally, we encourage discussion on traditional technologies

We encourage papers that question (for example): how the development of jewellery with digital capabilities created from a contemporary/art jewellery position brings new potentials of what the digital can be in our lives; if new technologies (laser cutting, 3D printing, burgeoning developments in 4D printing) are radically changing both the meanings and the production of jewellery; implications of the rise of web 2.0 for artisans who embrace the philosophy of digital design to experiment with shapes and forms impossible to realize by hand alone; and what it means for jewellery and wearables to co-exist. The advent of digital capabilities could be counteracted by research questions rooted in investigating the impact of traditional technologies have had on todays practice.

Keywords: digital production tools, digital jewellery, wearables, web 2.0, artisans, co-creation