let's get married....

Hello my little blog monkeys.... So I've gotten a bit of a suprise recently...

My best friend told me she is getting married...

I'm very very excited for her, love both her and her boyfriend to bits...

So my wedding gift to them is I am making the engagment ring and wedding rings for them... Something I would do for oldest and closest friend....

So this is the design process of her ring... She already has the stones, infact she might even be getting more... And now I am just playing around until we find the perfect combination.... It has to be traditional, with a bit of flair and ellegance.... Add to it that I am her best man (she's not having a maid of honour) and I feel this has so be very very special.... It only happens once in a lifetime, unless divorce is an option for you...

Let's hope it's not....

golden bunnies and crosses... (birthday gifts and boredom)

so.... the end of year dawned upon me... it brings the end of my acedemic year and my birthday, which incidentally is also my younger brothers birthday (2nd birthday, thanx mom, can we get a refund?) So before I lost acces to a mayor big workshop, only until mid January though...

I did the following:

For those who have seen my portfolio from 3rd year might remebr my bunnie rings...

anyway I made a master of it and made a large amound of them (as seen above)

cast these into silver and treated them.....

The one above I gold plated, some I polished and the others I sandblasted or oxidised....

They don't look half bad, gonna sell them soon...

So coming back to my brother (and my birthday) I decided to make him a rosary (I never give him a present btw, and vice versa). the rosarie is the same as Ive made before, which he liked and just made it with black tourmaline... think of it as a belated 21st present....

renderings... for clients...

So these are renderings I did for clients... It's a pair of rosaries... Made for a couple for their aniversary The trick with this is the guy is a Pagan, so his has pentacle as the main piece and the first prayer bead is replaced with a cross. His girlfriend is Christian, hers has a cross and the bead is replaced with a pentacle... The actual pieces are in sterling silver with black tourmaline beads.... they came out stunning.... and it's a beautifully symbolic piece...

so I was bored....

So I was a bit bored... and as I haven't modeled something up in ages...
I went and did a rendering on Rhino of my rosarie...
(See earlier posts on it)
But basically it's a rosarie with a 2ct Sapphire in..
And I just felt like rendering it up...
Looks pretty decent I think...

cufflinks....

So these are a pair of cufflinks I made for a client (my mother).
I took longer to make them than I should have, this I owe to being out of practice...
thank you sickness...
They are hollow ovals with 2 blackened lines running over them in sterling silver.
They look so amazing when worn... Such a simple design, so effective...

How to make a six claw wire setting [Student support]

This is my latest project, an ongoing student support system for the early years of making jewellery. Research material is sometimes very difficult to find, so this is for those student who like to do their homework... enjoy

Cut 7 pieces of .9 mm wire (15 mm in length)
Bind them together and push the middle wire out.

Drop a silver ball into the middle and solder it.

Put this in your pendant motor and cut a groove into the wires (1.5mm deep) with your saw frame.

Completely pull out the middle wire and push open your claws (the groove helps you with this)

Solder the cuts closed, to stabilise your setting.

Measure your stone and jump ring. The stone must just be bigger than the inside of your jump ring.

Measure where the stone sits in your setting and file grooves into your jump ring. Your jump ring must sit just under where your stone sits, allowing your stone to rest on the jump ring.

Solder your jump ring in.

Now file and clean-up your setting as to how you need it. Remember to leave length at the bottom if you still need to file it for your shank.

so I do this for fun...

So yes... this is what I do for fun... I make rosaries... and experiment with metals...

these are a set of four for me, and 3 friends...

each of the crosses has a different flaw, metallurgically speaking...

such as bubbled metal, pitmarks, porosity and discolouration...

yes, they were all on purpose.... experiments...

they are set with cabachon garnets and strung with garnet beads...

Lovey dovey... bitchy posey....

This is my greek... Metaxia's website...

go have a look she's got some awesome stuff.... quirky stuff....

www.metaxia.com

yes we have a love hate thing... she just molested my armpit...

Birthday hearts and shiny stones...

I had another birthday... and with my love of making presents I made one of my little black hearts for her... Suits her, dark en twister girl... my german... it's blackened silver heart with fine silver stitching... Cute...
And then I had time too so I made this ring... It's a gents ring... testing a theory... just how unisex can I make jewelley? Many people like this, think I'm gonna try and do a range like this... I have no idea what the stones are... think the one is blue hawks eye and the other one a pyrate variety... what happens when you find them at a flea market... R2 each, very cheap...


Oh and I've been a bad blogger... I'm trying to do more now that my thesis is done..

Birthday gift and a violin...

So I've been a bad blogger... The earrings above were yet another birthday gift. These were for a friend who studies jewellery with me, Metaxia. We have a love hate relationship. I believe she's having my children one day... Anyway, the earrings are sterling silver, each segment has a different texture on.

This was a project I gave myself, started out as a pendant and became a ring. The heart is blackened and the stones are cabachon garnet and Iolite.

Esculpta jewellery... wow

I discovered this website and had to share... http://www.esculpta.com/

While doing research for my thesis, I have been breaking my head over the designs available. For those who don't know my thesis's working title is :Defining Contemporary jewellery in the gay community and if there is a market for it.

This websit was the first I found that thought outside of the box. I'm absolutelly in-love with their designs. I find there is a richness in symbolism in thier pieces that one lacks normally. Jewellery shouldn't just be static but should have some life, some meaning and they acheive this.

There is a certain beauty in what they have dont, not just on an aestetic level, but on a level of giving you meaning to an otherwise dead piece. The use of mediums such as rubber with silver works well and the shape of the male figure is taken into consideration with most pieces.

The fact that they think out of the box and have come up with quite ingenious designs, I reffer to their cock rings, amaze me. Not only have they taken a piece that normally just gets over looked, they have turned it into quite a fashionable piece that is practical.

I'm really amazed by this collection and I am looking forward to seeing what else they have instore....

neglect....

I'm neglecting all my electronic responsibilities... But it's for a good cause, my thesis.... even mxit is being avoided, but that's cause my phone was stolen...

Don't you think this is an amazing photo?

Link I found...

Yeah I'm a jewellery geek.... for my fellow jewellers, check this out, quite a nice site I found... Lots of info....

www.fetter-and-three.co.za

Toodles

My letterheads...

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd post something relevant to my Btech. We're supposed to design, bussiness cards, letterheads and quote sheets... Well I've already shown you my buz cards. So there are two ideas for my letter heads.

Which is this one:

or this one:

Now the hard part is so pick one... anyone willing to give any advice?

Egoli, aparantly not the place of gold

Yesterday as usual my mother watched Egoli ( a local SA soapie). One of the characters yet again has gotten involved in shady dealings and is involved in the trade of uncut Tanzanite. One of the parties involved in the trade picked up a stone, looked at it with for about 10 seconds and proceeds to say, "eye-clean just the way I like it, no inclusions anywhere" Now any jeweller will know, you cannot look at a stone with the naked eye and determine it value nor how perfect it is. The flaws are way too tiny, and it sure as hell isn't possible with a rough stone. Not only that but his "tanzanites" we bright glowing purple. Sorry Franz Marx, go back to school. Clearly whoever is doing his props needs to go back to film school or just take 5 minutes and actually do their research as do his writers. If you're going to try and make something believable, well as believable as Egoli can be, then do your work. I really did laugh my butt off...

screwed in the heart...

Yet another birthday present...

This one is for a friend, Janece, we call her the innocent. But thats only in body.

The soul is as tainted at these hearts...

Dangly earrings

Okay, well besides for the really bad photo... these are earrings I made for a friend. they are much shinier thrust me, but I seem to be off my photography mojo. They read Andrea and are made from sterling silver.

top and/or bottom?

Officially a photo('s) of one of my Btech pieces. This is my 2nd piece, both having the same concept behind them. This one is just a bit more technically challenging.

The rings read top and bottom, as you can guess their on the tops and bottoms of the rings. The rings can either be read as just a fashinable piece or it can be because of a more sinister nature... Boys, you figure out which side will be more prominent. The rings still unfinished as of now. But will be done soon, with another 2 pieces designed with this concept... Maybe a versitile piece as well... Lol

finger protection?

I've been a bad blogger nothing for a while so I decided to post this. A friend and I were discussing old pieces and armour rings popped up, so I decided to just post this.

This is an armour ring I made in my 3rd year. This whole piece was thought to be really sinple but then I ended up having to shape it by hand and hammer. The middle section is higly polished and the rest is a circular sandpaper texture. Yes lord of the rings was my inspiration but also bleach (anime, for more infor see www.bleach7.com).

On B-tech news, I've finally started a piece, I'll show off soon. That piece has inspired 2 other similar pieces getting a bit more complicated with the next incarnation.

curious or not?

After a week of madness, I can finally post again, not really cause I had too little time, but because I was stuck for ideas. Also I'm lazy, I'm on holiday.... so sue me...

Anyway, this post is what I would call stereotypical at the most. After a very interesting long weekend, for we all had easter and I'm sure you all at your fill of chocolate... I can say I saw alot and learned a thing or two. I had the experience of meeting a few individuals who will remain nameless.. But for my research purposes, they would be the ultimate in what I would call sterotypes. The one was a very closeted, "I have a girlfriend, but I fool around with guys" and very jock-like. Another, was extremelly camp, very open, swishy wrists and fondly referred to himself as a "flaming faggot." These two just gave me a little insight as to how people view eachother.

If it wasn't for the fact that I knew Mr Curious was in fact gay, yes he is he actually knows it, I would not have said anything. Walking around watefront with him and friends and noone was the wiser, and he is quite happy being a "guy."

But then it came down to Miss Man, he reffered to himself this way by the way not me, and there was an air of shock value. It was almost like he enjoys the attention. I mean this is a guy that was walking around with mascara and lipgloss in his bag, yes there was a handbag.

Both these men are gay, but both have different viewpoints. One is scared of being chastised and the other embraces it. It makes me wonder what kind of world we live it to have to either hide your identity orflaunt it to such an extreme....

tick tock tick tock....

Here's one of my favourite pieces, a clockwork heart brooch. I've been known to call my heart, the beaty thing, the organic pump, machine that needs to stop... yes I don't like emotion, yet I thrive on it. This piece was one of my "ten piece" collection. It was inspired in part by a friend who designed a piece of jewellery based on Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, a vilian from the hellboy series, who has a clockwork heart, read him up on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Ruprecht_Kroenen , i do not condone wikipedia as the information is unsourced and though mostly right does contain some errors). The piece was also inspired by a bit of an emotional setback I had and I wished at that time to be able to turn my heart off like a machine, hence silencing the beaty thing. The brooch is large about 6 cm in diameter, the outside is flypressed quite shallow and pierced in a cracked and beat open manner. The bottom gears are soldered onto the back plate and are slightly smaller than the tope gears. The top gears sit ontop of cheniers cut .2mm higher than the bottom gears. These in turn can move and connect. The inside was oxidised and scratch brushed to give a worn and old manner like the heart has been through much damage and abuse.

beep beep beeeeeep

I really have to start putting current work on... But why bother? These hearts are a 3rd year enamelling project for Limoge. Our brief was kintetic, my earring sway very lightly from side to side but the actual "movement" is in the enamel, an E.E.G monitor. The front side has a heart beat and the back has a flat-line. There is no soldering on this piece and the two halves have a scratched texture and are sown together with fine silver wire (.3 mm in diameter). They each have two little garnet beads to cap them. As these are dying hearts I thought they would be apropriate to my mood at the moment.

My cards.....

These are my bussiness cards. This turned into a project for Btech drawing. After being harassed by friends I'm putting the proofs up. I'm having them printed at the moment, but thats taking forever....

Those damn Bunnies....

These are two more piece I did for my 3rd year collection. They are a take on traditional claddagh rings [Irish promise rings]. The bunnies represent hand, which mean together, thee heart means love and the balls on top represent a crown, meaning loyalty.

I'm going to try and use these bunnies, for my current collection that I'm designing. Hopefully they'll work well.

A little more relevance....

Okay, so the tittle of this post must be kind of confusing... Well I sure as hell think it is to me... This week I had a moment of clarity. I finished off the cufflinks I was making for my client, although it would be nice if he would pick them up and pay me... But also I had those sleepless nights one sometimes has. That being said let me explain the cufflinks first.

The cufflinks were my clients idea, he has an obsession with them. These are a gift for a friend. Now you'll notice the faceplates have words on and they spell "cuth links." This is a play on his friends name, which starts with cuth... Cute yes? So the whole aim of the thing was to actually make him some "cuth links." The links have a standard back on, meaning it's bought, and the faceplate is pierced and soldered with a black resin inlay. The whole piece is highly polished, resin finished to smoothest surface.

Now for part 2.... My sleepless nights explained. My thesis has been giving me nightmares. Mainly because I'm like: "How the f##k am I supposed to design gay jewellery?" So to get back on the topic of not sleeping, ever had one of those nights where your brain just doesn't want to shut down due to heavy traffic and ideas? Well that's been me for the last 2 weeks. Every night I get into bed, my brain starts working overtime and I must say I am so saturated with ideas, most of which aren't feasable, that I drift off to sleep at about 3. Usually lying in bed, staring at the stars, thinking "where's my ceiling?" So now my ideas have started manifesting themselves, I've been looking up websites with gay jewellery on. Most of them as utter commercial crap. So is it possible to make jewellery that is contemporary and unique, that isn't what you see everyday? something to make you think twice?

That's where my little friend (the puzzle piece) came in. I made this when I was in second year (I think), just as a springboard piece to launch a range that I wanted to call puzzled. This exact piece helped me make my bunny rings in 3rd year (yes I owe you guys pics). So now It's added to my my B-tech ideas. Okay lemme clarify first, 1. I wanted to make a range. 2. Bunnies are cute. So this is the idea, well 2 of them, why not make a small range (7/8 pieces) inside my body of work, that I would be able to process and sell as a range of jewellery towards the gay community. Now the other thing is there is an afrikaans slang for gay men, "bunnies", see where I am going with this? I've cooked up some designs, I'm playing around. And I cans afelly say this range is gonna happen, even got a name... Have some pride... Have sum pride? Which ever sounds better, but there's idea number one for pieces.. Finally some direction!

Le locket si Violin

well finally the pictures of my violin have been taken. Here it is in it's totality. Its wieght is 23 grams without the chain. The violin is made of 925 silver and the strings are made from fine silver. It has been blackened on the inside and brushed to give it an old look. The outside of the piece has been platinum papered to give it a matted, worn look. It swivels open to reveal an inner compartment. I must say this was the most complex piece of jewellery I have ever made, but it was by far one of the easiest. enjoyed it immensly and I actually want to diffuse it and make a range of violin inspired jewellery, that will have to wait for now though. I've had a lot of interest towards this piece and as of yet have quite a few orders for similar pieces, e.g. a guitar brooch.

Madonna Locket

This Locket was another of my 3rd year pieces. It has a twin, where the cameo is of a praying cherub. The cameo's I found while I was shopping at the Cape Town holistic fair and they were originally keyrings. The cameo's are housed in a fine silver setting and the lockets themselves are two oval domes. The inner dome has been stamped with the latin version of the "our Father":

Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
sanctificetur Nomen Tuum;
adveniat Regnum Tuum;
fiat voluntas Tua,
sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a Malo

while the twin is the english translation. The backplate for the cameo was pieced with a small heart and then scratched. The locket is held in place with a hinge and has a bail in the shape of a small heart. The locket was polished adn set after the inside of the piece was oxidised... The oxidisation of the prayer, came out in hues of blue and red and I desided to keep it, it was sealed with clear glass paint and is ready to see the world. The lockets way over 50 grams each and are wonderfully chunky.

After this project though, I found many mistakes and problems during the manufacturing. There are a few things I'd change and design idea's I would like to try and I have to admit, they look simple, but they are the two hardest pieces I have ever made, including my miniature violin (pics to follow but see the previous rhino rendering post) .

7 deadly shanks....

This was another "piece" for my 3rd year collection. The insperation for these rings were the 7 deadly sins. Each ring is inspired by one of the sins. The shanks themselves are all uniform, they are oval shaped with a gallery to support the heart ontop. The gallery being a small 7 to hold the heart atop.

Each of the hearts sits at a slight angle and has a different feature. The hearts are modified aas such:
Envy: the heart was highly polished and then glasspainted green.
Gluttony: this heart was made double the size of the others and has a scratched surface
Pride: this heart was stamped me and polished
Lust: has a tiny bikini made out of plate and the bikini was glasspainted red.
Greed: a small disc, stamped R1 is pushed into the heart, to make it look like a piggybank
Wrath: a small dagger was carved out of silver and pressed into the heart.
Sloth: for this heart I made a small silver pillow on which the heart rests, I then made little z's and attached them to make it look like it is snoring.

This was a very succesfull collection of rings and I am pleased to say that I've been approaced by mayny people about bying replicas of them or even making sets with the concept....

Rainbow parade

OK so this was a little eyeopener..... Saturday I had the pleasure of going to Cape Town Pride. This event is held every year with the hopes of uniting cultures, such as the gay and straight communities. For more info: http://www.capetownpride.co.za/ Anyway, this was my first pride, and I stayed on the sidelines, lol (should not be abbreviating) and took photos of the parade and the people. With this I have got to say the gay community is vibrant, its huge and it's different. There are so many different types of people, from little 18 year old skinny boys, to old men, who've picked up a few, pretty little girls in pigtails to old ladies, who I mistook for a plumber. Theres a bit of everything and I've got to say I was shocked. This was an amazing research opportunity, made a lot of contacts and seeing all the different people out and about i've noticed the jewellery these individuals wear. Much of it is commercial but there is the odd designer piece here and there, even better pieces you can see were commisioned just for them... The last part being what I want to see! Stay tuned for more information, blog you later....

Posting for the sake of posting

Well I feel a bit out of it seeing as I haven't blogged for a while.... But lemme just update for the sake of updating....

At the moment I am making a few pieces, pieces for clients, myself and soon pieces for my B-tech... the latter being the hard part seeing as I have no idea where to start.

Let me start with the cleints first.... Recently made a ring for a friend, it's based on a knuckle duster, its was 2 d-shaped bands soldered together to fit on her idex and middle finger with her name in bold cursive letter on top. Highly polished silver... The second is a set of cufflinks I am designing and making with pierced out detail and resin inlay.

The personal pieces were and are, a claddagh ring such as those I designed last year (for my 3rd year collection, yes pictures to follow soon) , but just tweaked slightly as I made the shank broader and added gold detail. Right now I am making a rosarie (yes, again), its a semi-gothic inspired cross with the spacer piece beiang triangular and set ontop of that is a 2ct blue star sapphire... this piece is a work in progress though, because of my indecisiveness in its design, originally i was going to do semi precious beads with silver spacers but now I am considering chain... so It's become one of my design-by-bench pieces.

Now my B-tech pieces..... this is my biggest problem.... my thesis is about jewellery in the gay community... problem being how do you desing for gay men and women? Watch this space as I try and figure that out.... I'm doing some research the weekend, I'm pretty sure a piece will come out of that...

This is my plique-a-jour goblet. It is 100% fine silver and is made out of graduating brown and yellow enamels. The top dome is the plique-a-jour technigue, where the enamel has no back plate to support it, the bottom is champleve. The goblets was inspired after I read the brief and it said geometric patterns work the best. I've always wanted to make a honeycomb and cast and organic object. So for this I considered both options. On the inside of the goblet is a bee that I cast and set a black pearl into its abdomen. Underneat the bee is a thread and a washer to hold the top dome in place. the bottom dome is also held in place with a screw and a washer underneat in a floral pattern. The bottom pattern is known as the humonko, which is used in an anime I watch called bleach, but is known as a the death sting in japanese. This goblet is now in the permanent collection of CPUT along with other done by fellow classmates.