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....