Ivy Necklace

"Ivy Necklace" (close up)
Silver, resin, glass beads

"Ivy Necklace"
Silver, resin, glass beads

"Ivy Necklace" (close up)
Silver, resin, glass beads

"Ivy Necklace"
Silver, resin, glass beads

This is my "Ivy Necklace". Believe it or not, I started this neckpiece/ necklace, maybe about a year ago. I only worked on it on my free weekends, so for starters it took a long time for it to even start looking like a jewellery piece.Eventually, i got really frustrated with it(sometimes you just get annoyed looking at pieces that seem to be going nowhere), and decided to put it on the back burner while i was distracted with other things. I'm really happy that it's finally complete, and I've gotten ideas for more pieces, some of which may look like a very obvious derivative of this one. (Cannot wait to get cracking with those!)
I posted more than one image of this piece because it looked so different on the black and white backgrounds. In the first image, on the black background, the colours look quite acid, but they're not at all that luminescent. The necklace also isn't as long as it looks in that image ( I neglectfully didn't measure the length), but it sits a little below the collarbone.

Oval pattern earrings

Oval 'leaf' pattern earrings
silver, resin
19mm x 11.5mm

Oval 'circles' pattern earrings
silver, resin
19mm x 11.5mm

Oval 'bell flower' pattern earrings
silver, resin
19mm x 11.5mm

Oval 'lotus bud' pattern earrings
silver, resin
19mm x 11.5mm

Oval 'lotus' pattern earrings
silver, resin
19mm x 11.5mm

earrings in process

I was still playing around with ideas that were still familiar. You could say that these are my previous 'resin pattern rings', converted into earrings. I haven't worked with resin in this manner in a while, so I forgot how much fun, and also frustrating the whole process is, but absolutely worth it. I plan to do several more of them, but not the same patterns, change the design a little each time, or it can sometimes get a bit tiresome repeatedly doing the exact same piece. 

Starting slow

Pierced circle leaf earrings
silver, resin
14mm diam.

Pierced circle flower earrings
silver, resin
14mm diam.

Pierced circle flower earrings
silver, resin
14mm diam.

Okay...so its been a very long time since I've posted anything on this blog. Truth be told, it's been a long time since I've really finished much jewellery of my own, and the few pieces that I have made, have gone out into the universe without having been 'catalogued'. To get back into the swing of things, i started with these earrings something very familiar. I've made them before, but changed a few details on these pairs. 

Leaf cluster earrings

Leaf cluster earrings with flower links
Silver, resin

I can’t help but feel a little frustrated when I think of this earrings. They happened at the end of a week, where everything I was trying to make, just wasn’t working out. However through all of that, came these earrings which I had no design on paper for, but the idea didn’t materialize out of nothing. It is an amalgamation of several pieces I’d done over the years. All in all, they are the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Another necklace...:)

I spent a lot more time making this piece than I initially anticipated but in the end I’m pleased with the way it turned out. It has an ‘Indianess’ to it, even if it is through obvious images of the lotus flower. I was planning on using only ‘warmer’ reds, oranges and yellows, with the resin, but changed my mind when I actually did it, and I’m thankful I did, as I think the brighter and more varied colours stand out against the stark black. Surprisingly I enjoyed adding beads to this piece, so I’m planning to do more necklaces in the near future. It’s a chance to add a different feature to the piece, and to play a bit more with colour.

Lotus patterned necklace
Silver, resin, glass, coral,turquoise beads

Yes, it’s another necklace. This one has common elements with the one for the ‘Local is Lekker’ exhibition, but has a completely different feel to it. I was asked to make a piece, for possible selection to be part of a collection of work that include artists from Kwa Zulu-Natal. It is being put together by the Tatham Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, and as far as I know this necklace is going to be included in the exhibition that runs in June next year. I will put up more details as soon as I know.

Resin rings, pattern

Resin pattern rings
silver, resin

Slowly but surely, imagery, colours, shapes/forms of ‘old’ started to creep bank into my work. These rings are where I started to bring back more of the culturally inspired imagery and colours. Whether or not it was a completely conscious effort, I’m not entirely sure, but the initial ‘test pieces’ were a far cry from these. These pieces were also somewhat experimental, I hadn’t ,used resin in this way before, so I was ecstatic when it worked out. Working with resin on a ring, or a more curved surface, is tricky and messy because the liquid resin runs everywhere, and if you’re not careful, can go horribly wrong. I think these have become a favourite to make )for now anyhow) even though the several stages of applying the resin, is time consuming.

Lotus bloom

Lotus patterned, acrylic on canvas

This was a small painting I did a few years ago, while still studying Jewellery Deisgn at tech. i painted it after continuously working for weeks at the bench, and writing my thesis, I wanted a different creative outlet that didn’t involve making, or talking about making, jewellery.

I keep going on about the jewellery that I’ve been producing lately, in that it is a lot simpler than pieces I usually tend to make. I was slowly starting to feel unfulfilled churning out ‘mass’ amounts of the same simpler pieces. Sometimes the ritual of repeatedly making the same element can be therapeutic, but eventually that that much repetition becomes tedious. The simpler pieces didn’t seem to show any connection to my cultural background, which excluding this phase, has almost always been a part of my work.

I think the pieces I did for the ‘Local is Lekker’ exhibition triggered a need to return to making jewellery that I was more familiar with. So I dug through the cupboards and found a few old sketchbooks a few paintings I had forgotten about.