Deconstruction

Using the photographs for more than their colours 

while researching other artists that have similar objectves as me, I found a  jeweller by the name of Marian Hosking, Her subject matter is the flora of Australia and in many pieces has used images or silhouettes of plants. instead of using the image as is, she layers images, deconstructs and reassembles images in order to create a new image all together. With this in mind, i wanted to use the photographs that i have been taking and use them not only for their colours but also for their potential to create interesting shapes.

Above is the original image. I took this image and made it black and which a swapped negative and positive.

This is the result. The aim was to them pierce out sections of this image and enamel the positive areas. 

These are some of the test pieces and cut outs. i am in the process of manufacturing a statement neck piece that will be claw set with silver. 

Colour in Hoops

Enamel elements incorporated in a hoop 

For this pair of earrings I wanted to add an enameled element. Furthermore I wanted to add movement. I think these are somewhat successful but feel that the proportions are a bit off. Thinner wire for the frame would allow the enamel element to be more of a focal point. I think that the wore over powers the enamel at the moment. 

Kiln Fired

Enamel testing 

Up until now, I had been using my bench torch to fire my enamel pieces and i wasn't getting a constant look. This week I started firing my enamels in the kiln and I am really excited with the results. I found that there was more room to play around with different colour and colour combinations because it more controlled. Here are some of my test pieces. 

Hoops!

Exploring the hoop 

While designing for anglo plat, I started designing hoops and I want to carry on exploring this style of earrings. there is so much room for experimentation. 

These are a variation of my AngloPlat earrings

Sterling silver hoops with a textured detail 

Sterling silver hoops with a textured detail

Enamel Pin

Enamel Pin

I decided to make a simple enamel pin that was riveted to create some movement. It wasn't as successful as Id have liked it to be and I need too work on my riveting skills. I do like its overall look and I think that it could be a starting point for other pieces. 

Colour inspiration

Sterling silver and enameled copper pin

colours!

Some morning colour inspiration

The mornings are when I exercise. I have to stop myself from taking pictures every 5 minutes because the colours are simply breathtaking. Here are two pictures I took on my morning runs at the beach. 

Yellow?

Testing Yellows 

Looking at the pictures from Krantzkloof, I wanted to try recreate the yellow colours from the yellow flowers I observed there. My test pieces (while I like the result of a few of them) weren't exactly yellow. More playing will be done. 

It might be that the yellow enamels work better on silver instead of copper.

Colours I was trying to achieve

 Test  pieces: 

Krantzkloof Colours

Krantzkloof Colours 

Here are Some Pictures taken at Kranzkloof Nature Reserve in Kloof. I found these colour combinations really interesting. 

Enamel Testing- Sasol New Signatures

Enamel Test Pieces

I have decided to enter the Sasol New Signatures Art competition. For this piece I want to make a “painting” made up of small pieces of enamelled copper.  These are some of my first test pieces. For the purpose of my initial “playing” I have focused, or tried to, on the colours in the following picture:

I think that by doing this completion, and by doing all these little pieces, I will be able to learn and understand enamels and the colours/ textures that im wanting to achieve in my jewellery.

Colours on my street

Bubble Gum Colours 

Just some sunset colour inspiration.

Colours on my Street

The littlest flowers 

Spotted these little flowers on my way home from the shop today. Orange seems to be a colour that i keep getting drawn to. Honestly its one of the colours I'd normally steer away from but since taking note of the colours around me in nature and by the ocean, it keeps popping out as one of the ones that i think are most effective. 

water colour colour colour playing

Colours 

Some water colour paintings and line drawings. Trying understand the colours I want to work with. Im battling to get the colours the same as im observing them. 

Natures Bangle

Natures Bangle 

I made this Pieces as i was starting to feel stuck with the enamels, so i thought id do a quick project to get into the swing of things again.

I melted a piece of copper directly onto my soldering board and it created a very rough look, like a little rock. i then added some green, mossy looking enamel. 

The end result looks like a little mossy stone on a crisp polished silver band. 

New Colours

New Colours 

I have started working with a new colour combination using the following photograph as inspiration:

These are the test pieces I have done so far. I'm not ecstatic about them.  

First Piece

First Piece 

I chose the test piece that I think was most effective and made this ring with it. I want to make a range of these rings drawing inspiration from the colour combinations in nature. I want the focal point to be the enamel so I have chosen to make the ring itself quite simple. I like the clean lines of the silver as a contrast to the organic feel of the enamel.

More Enamel Testing

More Enamel Testing

I did some more test pieces but this time on domes. I was focusing on the colours from a picture that I fell in love with. I really like how the colours were turning out and have found that not cleaning the piece each time has contributed to the effect that I am trying to achieve.

Lichen on the rocks and a mossy green plant.

Some test pieces and notes

Playing with Enamels

Playing with Enamels 

These are some of the test pieces I have done so far. I was just finding my feet as i havent done enamels in a while. There are so many variables that its difficult to know (well for me at this point) whats really going on. But I like some of the results and I feel like going forward with it will be fun and that I'll get my desired look with some practice (and maybe a bit of luck). 

Mixed Materials

Mixed Materials

I have chosen to first look at Mixed Materials in jewellery. The main reason I have done so is to explore colour in jewellery to a greater extent. I believe that by using mixed materials in my jewellery that it’ll be a “greater revelling in colour and freedom of expression in jewellery.”*. There is so much to be explored when it comes to colour in jewellery and this excites me as the possibilities are endless.

 As a starting point, I want to play and experiment with enameling. I want to discover beautiful colour combinations inspired by nature and specifically by the ocean and its close surrounds.

The following pictures were taken in Pringle Bay in the Western Cape and are some examples of colour combination inspiration.

I want to combine the colours created through different methods, with the crispness of sterling silver. I have already started experimenting with enameling. Id like to achieve two things with enamels:

       

                    1)      Achieve a finish/ look that resembles the raw, natural organic look of, for example the dirtiness of the orange on the rocks and the roughness of the ferns green leaves, as in the picture above.

2)      Use clean colours and use pencil to draw plats, rocks, waves on the enamel

The following jewellers have achieved these two desired looks:  

Maria Irene Weinz - ocean inspired rough enamels

Nicolette Absil- botanical drawings on enamel 

“showing an awareness, as other jewellers increasingly have, of the need to satisfy a range of senses. Kessler writes “I search for a kind of mystery within the material and I try to tempt people to come closer and touch the object. First they touch it with their eyes, even with their hands – until  it finally touches their hearts.”* this quote is explains exactly what i want to achieve with this range. I want people to want to touch my jewellery, pick it up and feel like they are discovering something new and beautiful, just like you do when exploring at the beach or in nature in general. 

*quotes taken directly from the Virtual Gallery: Mixed Materials 

Colours in Pringle Bay

Colour inspiration in Pringle Bay

                                      

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.