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.

Still recapping

Silver and resin circle earrings with pierced detail

After spending, more or less, a year indulging in making squares, I think I finally got really tired of doing using them…so bring on the circles :)

Alice

Resin square rings, with pierced detail
silver, resin

Alice and Queen brooches
silver, resin

Silver and resin figure silhouette brooches and pendants,

branched off from the ‘Alice’ group of jewellery

These were part of the ‘Alice’ collection of pieces that I did for a ‘Fiction and Fairytales’ exhibition at Artisan Contemporary Gallery, in July 2008 (I’m still recapping here). These pieces still reflect my need to create simpler pieces, at the time, to try to deviate from more complicated pieces I usually make.

Let's recap

pierced squares
resin, silver

Resin step-square ring
resin, silver

resin square earrings
resin, silver

resin square rings
resin, silver

Okay, now we’re stepping back in time (bare with me, I’m trying to play catch up here). I made these rings and earrings in early 2008. They were part of my exhibition at the Cape Town Design Indaba. This is where I started moving away from the more organic, irregular forms/ shapes, and opted for less elaborate pieces. Partly due to a time constraint, and because I generally tend to agonize over details of the piece, and sometimes over the tiniest decision, making these offered instant gratification. Once I’d made these, I couldn’t stop using the ‘soft square’ in the pieces that followed. I’ve never really used squares or straight lines in my work, so I quickly began to indulge in using ‘the square’. These pieces were the start of simpler, maybe ‘quirkier’ pieces. It just feels a lot less formal than my previous work.

'Local is Lekker' continued...

earrings for 'Local is Lekker' exhibition

silver, resin

These earrings were more or less a derivative of the necklace. The 'leaf pattern' pair is actually something that I tried to do with enamel a few years ago, that I didn't quite get right with enamel, but its worked out a lot closer to what I wanted with using resin.

This is where I got a bit impatient working with resin. I usually do the resin work in several stages, waiting for certain areas to set before I start with the next. However here I did most of the resin work all in one sitting (and took longer than expected). I did want to blend a few colours together, but here, some of the colours ran into each other unintentionally, but with these pieces it didn't really ruin the pattern, but next time definitely more patience. I wasn't sure about the length of the earrings, but seeing them finished shorter, I think they would look more dramatic and elegant if they were longer, which is what I wanted intially.

'Local is Lekker' exhibition

close up of long necklace for 'Local is Lekker' exhibition

This was practically the second necklace/necpiece that I've ever done. Even though I've got a few ideas for bigger neckpieces, I tend to stay away from doing them, maybe its the idea of jewellery on a bigger scale that's a little daunting. But seeing as I surprisingly enjoyed making this one, there are a few more that I want to do.

I was really happy with the way the resin came out, even though some colours ran into each other, I think it actuallty looks better that way, it looks more natural and less planned (because it wasn't). That's one aspefct when it comes to resin, sometimes it can be a bit difficult and messy to work with, and the final outcome could be something unexpected, but depending on which way you see it, it could be a good or bad thing. The resin here is actually is little more translucent than shown in the pictures. when the light shines directly on it, theres a subtle 'glow' and the colours look a lot more vibrant and warmer.

Long necklace/ neckpiece for 'Local is Lekker' exhibition

silver, resin, beads: wood, coral, turquoise

sketch for necklace

As usual, most of the jewellery pieces I do start off with a sketch. This is one of the later sketches for the necklace that I had in mind. Even though it's meant to be a 'final sketch', sometimes the idea looks better on paper or in my head. So I try to stick to the final sketch as much as possible, but as with this necklace, the piece ended up a little differently, but the intended effect is still there.

bracelets come in two's

For some reason, I tend to make bracelets in pairs. I started this bracelet while finishing off the previous one. The links are more or less the same, but obviously the colours are a little more placid. I usually quite like the transparent quality of resin, I used to think that it could look too 'flat' when it was opaque, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

Silver and resin square-link bracelet with rivetted flowers, no.2 (close up)

ready...steady...go!

Silver and resin square-link bracelet with rivetted flowers

With the intial sketch, it was really just scribble, I didn't have a specific piece in mind, and I left the sketch alone for a while. It turned out to be one of the firs things I made in my 'workspace' at home, in the garage. Up until this point, I'd made loads of simpler 'square-resin-earrings' (I'll post them on here somewhere). As you can see from the test piece, I was grappling with the links of the bracelet. I tried a few options (simpler, quicker options), but eventually settled on amoeboid looking square links I'd done for a previous bracelet.

'test piece'

just a doodle - initial 'sketch'

So this isn't quite the beginning, and in fact might be a very disjointed place to start, but it is a start.

My body of work, up until the finishing my Btech, can be put under the title
'Contemporary Indian Jewellery'. My jewellery during those student years were full of imagery, forms, colours from my Indian culture.

After my Btech, I think I wanted to make jewellery that wasn't obviously linked to my Btech topic, so in short, I started to 'doodle' more geometric shapes, the simpler the better, and the pieces that I started to make, looked like a far cry from what I'd done before (although the materials are similar). I think it was an effort to distance myself from everything I'd done before, to try and do simpler pieces, to see if I could, and maybe agonise less over every decision.

Where to start?

Where to start?...well I'm not too sure where the beginning is, so let's start with the not too distant past. It's new year's eve, and I've broken my leg...(not a great start), cut to about six weeks later and somewhere between reading Sophie's World and watching cricket highlights (not by choice) I've finally decided to start my blog. No more procrastinating over this issue, I've just decided to do it, to put the jewellery that I've been working on (until most recently) out there, although at present I think I'm mostly doing it to pass the time. So it's not perfect, it'll never be perfect, and I'll ramble quite a lot, but hopefully there'll be pretty pictures to make up for it.
...now to decide which piece to start with:)