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

                                      

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.