Hannah Blount

Hannah Blount

Tiny Aquamarine Lady Vanity Ring, Aquamarine set in 14k gold

I follow Hannah Blount on instagram and am constantly in awe of the various ways that she incorporates her cameo into her pieces of jewellery. The ring pictured above is one of my favourites. I think it is good example of adding a 3D from in an understated and elegant way. She subtly adds in the cameo into her cameo range very cleverly and I think that i can take a lot from her jewellery in terms of proportion and balance in terms of adding cast or carved elements into my jewllery.

Rosies Place Cameo, Fresh Water pearls in Sterling Silver or 18k Gold. 

Colour and 3D forms in Jewellery

I battled to find other jewellers who had similar aims or objectives to mine so I focused on other jewellers that utilise colour in jewellery and 3D forms.

The first Jeweller is Lisa Vershbow. She uses Plexiglass in her jewellery. I particularly liked her jewellery as the colour of the glass transforms the quite plain and simple ring into something quite interesting.  I think that introducing colour into jewellery can be extremely effective. 

Lisa Vershbow, "Neon Trio", Sterling Silver and Plexiglass

The second jeweller is Saskia Bostelmann. She created a range of rings called “I got you wrapped around my finger… A love story”. In this range she made rings with tiny human bodies. They are very delicate and detailed. I was drawn to her jewellery as it shows that when working with 3D forms, they don’t have to be chunky or over baring. They can be as delicate and beautiful as traditional jewellery.

Saskia Bostelmann, “I got you wrapped around my finger… A love story”

Images and jewellers both found in: 

Robert W. Ebendorf, 2004,1000 Rings, Lark Books, page 102 and 320 respectively.

The How of my Btech Proposal

Art Nouveau drawing 

Throughout my Btech, I'd like to study the various elements and characteristics of each design movement and incorporate those into mini ranges for each movement. 

As has been brought to my attention, I need to not only focus on only using these elements, but also make them my own by designing and manufacturing pieces of jewellery that reflect both my personal design voice as well as theses different elements from each movement. 

I'd like to create a range for each design movement and bring in 3D techniques and colour. 

I'd like to work in Rhino, wax carving as well as ceramics and putty. 

to add colour I want to work more with enamel and paint. 

I think that it would be interesting to try fuse my design style with these different movements I think that it'll be a challenge that will help me find and grow my personal style. 

This is a link to my pinterest board which showcases some of the references that I have been looking at for my personal project as well as for future designs. 

design in the 20th centrury

Contemporary Jewellery Inspired By Design Movements of The 20th Century.

Bauhaus Design 

While designing for my personal range, I really enjoyed researching and learning about the Art Deco and Art Nouveau design movements. I found it fascinating how a design movement can have such a vast effect on different aspects of our lives. From the way our houses are built and decorated, our clothes, jewellery, cars, these different styles influenced the world in major ways.

I think that it would be interesting to re look at these different movements and draw inspiration from them to design and make contemporary, modern pieces of jewellery.

By looking at these various design movements (such as modernism, Bauhaus, pop art, American kitsch etc.) I want to create pieces of jewellery that will celebrate these movements and how vastly they influenced design in the past and how without realising it, how they influence design in our modern day lives.

As part of my Btech I’d also like to look at 3D forms and incorporating colour into jewellery. 

This slide show explains some of the different design movements and their elements. 

Andy Warhol pop art print in Amsterdam Modern Contemporary Museum

Hidden Details

When designing this pendant I first looked at one of my favourite books as a child, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book.  I was (and probably still am) obsessed with fairies and pixies and anything mystical, and this book contained it all. What I love most about this particular book is that the fairies aren’t the stereotypical ones you usually picture; they are distorted, vulgar and almost a little bit ugly. But it’s these details that make them beautiful in a different way.
 I wanted to combine the look and feel of its rough beauty and sense of hidden, secret details into a pendant that one day could be passed on as an heirloom. I wanted it to be a piece of jewellery that could be something that I passed on to my children one day. It was to be a piece that represented a happy memory from my childhood that would give them, or whoever wore it, the same sense of happiness and bliss that Lady Cottingtons diary gave me as a child.  

This is one of the images from the book and one of my favourite. I used this image to get my general shape for the wing shape of my pendant. Like I stated before, these Fairies are not perfect or pretty in the usual way, but its their imperfections that give them their beauty.

I played around with texturing metal in order to try get the feel of a broken wing that was both delicate and beautiful but that also had a rough, "squashed" feel about it. After trying a few different techniques, this is the one that i liked the most. I used a combination of roll milling (to get the veins)  and folding the metal and then rolling it flat to get the ridges. I eventually used a section of this piece of metal in my final design.

I wanted a layered pendant that at first glance looked like a locket and when it was opened or swiveled, revealed the wing and the bottom patterned plate. this was my prototype. After more thought I realized that it needed to much smaller so made a smaller one that made it feel much more delicate and fairy like.

Playing with Pattern 

After choosing my Shweshwe material, I played with pattern and took elements from the fabric and made my own designs. From these designs I isolated an element that I thought would translate well in a piece of jewellery. From this element I create 2D and 3D versions out of clay in order to play around with arrangement, repetition and layering. 

These are the ones that I felt were the most successful.

This is the drawing/doodle that I chose to create my single element from. 

I think that this arrangement works well because of the different heights and how it is almost the start of a mandala. It reminds me a lot of the doodles that I experimented with when exploring the Shweshwe patterns. 

I like the way that this arrangement comes together so well with the combination of the 2D and 3D elements. I think it works well and creates an attractive shape that Id like to explore further. 

What I like most about this arrangement is the negative space that it creates. I think that there is potential for the exploration of this negative space in the form of a new element created from it. 

Sketching the CBD

As a 3rd year class, we ventured into the markets just a few minutes walk from our campus. The aim of this walk was twofold. firstly to sketch and document different patterns that we observed on the way, and secondly to choose and buy a swatch of Shwe Shwe material. 

I always find the markets to be very interesting and you get to see things that you dont normally see on a daily basis. I find it strange that there is this whole other lifestyle so close to where I live and study that is so vastly different to the lifestyle that I lead.

I really enjoyed doing these sketches, as rough as they are, because it really did change the way I looked at everything. I started seeing beautiful patterns and shapes in the negative spaces and amazing surfaces details in places that I wouldn't usually look at. 

The material shop that we went to to purchase the fabric in was beautiful in its own way. full of vibrant colours and patterns that you dont find at other shops.

Pictured below are some photos of the sketches that I did along the way as well as a photograph of the Shwe Shwe fabric that I chose. 

Passion Flower

Susan Mcleary is a florist and jewellery designer who challenges the perception that jewellery always has to be mad entirely of precious metals.

With her knowledge of fauna, Susan creates beautiful necklaces, rings, tiaras and bracelets made from a mixture of succulents, flowers, brass and copper.

These pieces are known as living jewellery as they continue to live and grow while you wear them. after a few weeks, you can remove and plant the succulents.

I really love Susan's work as not only is it beautiful but it is an example of how jewellery doesn't has to be as straight forward as the usual gold, silver, platinum and precious gem stones.

 

Succulent Bracelet



Succulent Necklace

This piece is more of a statement/ fashion photograph piece, but it is so beautiful and shows so wonderfully how vast the  possibilities are of making jewellery with different materials.

 

 

Tattoo Queen

 Using the circus, and specifically the tattooed women of the side shows, I designed this pendent which I have named Tattoo Queen. 

This pendant was a fun one to design and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different aspects of the circus and being exposed to all is magic and powerful imagery. I was drawn to the tattooed ladies as tattoos are now such a popular and common thing, and I like to think that they were the starting point in making them less of a taboo subject. I don't have a tattoo, but do plan on getting one in the future and these ladies have inspired me to be even bolder with my decisions in this regard. 

While I enjoyed the design process, the manufacturing was a bit more challenging. This is the most intricate piece of jewellery that I have made with the most details and layers. This, coupled with the fact that I generally battle with soldering, meant that the manufacturing process was very difficult for me. But it did give me the practice that I need and has made me a little more confident with soldering delicate pieces.

Overall I really enjoyed this project and am proud of the piece that I have made.

Tattoo Queen
Sterling Silver 

Manufacturing the Pendant 

 Because the design I had decided on was very organic, most of the final design decisions were made during the manufacturing process.

Pictured below are some images of the individual pieces that I made that would eventually be put together to form the pendant. 

Designing the Pendant 

In order to design my pendant I looked at images of tattoos both on the women from the circus and flash cards of traditional tattoos. I was torn between creating a design that either represented the tattoos literally, and a design that used different elements of pattern and motifs and that stood as a figurative visual representation.

Pictured below are some of the images that I explored and some of the drawings that I did in response to them.

I particularly was drawn to the floral tattoos as tattoos are usually masculine and these tattoos brought another aspect to them entirely. 

I then came across this image which brought all my designing together and is where I found my inspiration for my final design. 

A Night at the Circus

At the moment I am busy designing a pendant which is inspired by the circus and which utilises the technique of cannetille. 

The circus's of the 1880's (and for a few decades) had side shows which show cased "freaks" and unusual people, as well as tattooed woman, which I have chosen to use as my inspiration. 

Their entire bodies were covered in intricate traditional tattoos. People found this fascinating. Not only were tattoos uncommon (even more so on women) but in this very conservative time, seeing woman baring flesh was risky and controversial. 

I love these images because they show how people, and in particular woman, have always tried to challenge society and their views of how we should look and how only certain people can do certain things. I think these women were very brave for doing what they did. 

I also particularly love the intricacy and immense detail that their tattoos had. 

My aim is to make a beautiful piece of jewellery which brings one of these intricate tattoos to life.

   

A poster for a Circus side show attraction, La Bella Angora.
This image was found on a blog, which doesn't have much information. This site, however,  has more information about the history of these side shows.
  

After looking at many different traditional tattoos, I chose this one as my main reference and my point of departure to start designing my pendant.  

Mimosa Pudica's Wings

These are Mimosa Pudicas wings that she uses to travel in order to help woman in need.
They get their source of energy from the balls of plant matter which grow on the spine of her wings. just as plants use the sun to create their food and energy through photosynthesis, so do her wings. The single leaf that hangs almost like a pendant on her neck, not only keeps the wings attached to her, but also acts as navigational tool. 

Mimosa Pudicas wings 

closer look at the details on the spine of the wings 

Mimosa Pudica

A Modern Age Super Hero and Her Wings

If you are a female, you will know what it is like to walk down the road in broad day light and feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It’s happened to all of us and it will probably happen regularly for the rest of our lives.

It’s the cat calling. The ‘hey sexy’ called out of the taxi as they drive passed.   It’s the constant feeling that someone might try attack you at any moment and the fear that you can’t stop it. Its date rape and abuse, the injustices and inequality that woman face constantly. It is simply all the fear that women face daily that has to come to an end.

But there is a new hope on the horizon. In our day and age where there are so many super heroes fighting for their different causes, there is a new super hero. She was born into an unfair world but she is going to die in a loving and equal one.

Her name is Mimosa Pudica and she is the defender of woman’s rights and protector of their dignity. She is strong and fierce and unafraid to stand up and make a difference. While there is not much known about Mimosa Pudica, it is known that she was born in the forests of Knysna and grew up amongst the plants and wildlife, waiting the day she was strong enough to start fighting for a better world. 

While she is a ferocious fighter, she is also aided by her wings. Along with being beautiful, they are resilient and strong. Like her name, her wings were inspired by the plant, Mimosa Pudica or commonly known as ‘touch me nots’.

These plants are extremely delicate and when touched, the leaves retract and turn brown, but they are also strong as after a while they return to their original beauty. And this is what Mimosa aims to do, return all the strength and beauty to women.