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.