Description

Ulrika Kjeldsen (b. 1993) is a sculptor and medal-maker based between Scotland and the Aland Islands, Finland. While she was a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, she participated in the BAMS Student Medal Project, receiving an honorary mention in 2015 and the Lunts Casting prize in 2017. Kjeldsen was chosen as BAMS New Medallist 2017-18, for which she completed a month-long residency in Bulgaria under Professor Bogomil Nikolov and a week’s placement in the Royal Mint, where she used a computer modelling program to design two medals. Kjeldsen is a member of the Guild of Medallic Art in Finland. She attended the FIDEM congress held in Ottawa, Canada, in 2018.

                About her medal, she writes: ‘I grew up in a house with three dogs, but as the years went by we only had one dog left. Her name was Hippi and she was my mother’s dog. She used to follow my mother everywhere like a shadow. When my mother would go out, Hippi would sit by the window or lie next to the door, just waiting for her to return. Hippi died last Spring and now the house is empty and quiet. Whenever I open the front door, a part of me still expect to see a dog’s wagging tail as a welcome back. My mother has taken the absence of the dog especially hard and still misses Hippi very much. Just as Hippi used to be waiting for my mother to return, my mother is now still waiting for Hippi. I think a part of us will always keep waiting for the one we love.’