Buzzing bling

I've had the privilege to do my first window exhibition at Kin on Kloof this month.

This exhibition focuses on my use of bees in my jewellery.

Which I have a bit of an obsession with.

 This elaborate beehive structure (that I built by hand) houses 21 once off pieces.

Especially the honeycomb necklaces (more on that later).

Filled with facts about bees as well, I decided to inform people of these lovely little workers.

You know bees are currently dying out? And humanity would not be able to survive without them.

In fact we'd have less than four years before we follow them.

More than a 3rd of our food is produced by the help of bees.

Honeycombs  are the most efficient structures in nature -

the walls meet at a precise 120-degree angle, a perfect hexagon.

Go have a look:

KIN on Kloof
99B Kloof Street, Cape Town
GPS: -33.9314500, 18.4095900 | S 33° 55′ 53.22″, E 18° 24′ 34.52″
Mon to Fri 9.30am to 5.30pm
Sat 9.30am to 3.30pm

Now Stocking: Artvark Gallery

Friday I dropped off stock at:

Artvark Gallery in Kalkbay.

It's such an amazing space.

Love it.

Seriously go check it out and 

go grab some calamari in the harbour.

Artvark Gallery

48 Main road, Kalk Bay

Ditto | A Jewellery Exhibition

Ditto | A Jewellery Exhibition is an exhibition that was held at the Fringe Arts.  Curated by my awesome and lovely and stunning (the list goes on btw...) friend Chantal Louw.

Chantal says, “At times, without knowledge of each other, artists and designers work in remarkably similar ways. It could be the colours, the shapes or even the emotive aspect of the work that creates this link.”

 The Brief: "Eight jewellery designers were asked to create works linked to the art world either being inspired by a particular artist’s style or by collaborating with an artist."

 Participating were:

Caryn Fourie from A Bird Named Frank and Peter Mikael Campbell | Eon Hoon Jewellery Design and Black Heart Gang | Gillian Fuller and Colin Payne | Emma Atkinson from Milame Design and Lindi Sales | Metaxia Sterianos from Metaxia and Rebecca Jones | Megan McFall from Starbright Girl and Carla da Cruz | Marietjie Beeselaar from Skermunkil and Marli Lyon | Anna Raimondo from Smith Jewellery and Andrew Putter

 So without further ado... here's my piece I made, inspired by the Black Heart Gang.

 

A bit pressed...

May and June were a bit hectic on this side...

so sorry for being so quiet...

But as you can see there was a lot of press with the 

Ditto | A Jewellery Exhibition

   and then there was the Crush! Online project....

 Ditto was curated by the awesome Chantal Louw from The Fringe Arts. 

I'll post about it separately :))

and also Chantal organised the awesome (yes, awesome!) Crush! project, where we each made a piece inspired from fruit or veggies.  Sommer net so for the fun of it.

I worked with figs... soooo sticky!

I really love doing projects like this!!!

a cousins interview

A friend of mine's cousin asked me a few questions for an art project.

Thought it would be interesting to post the questions.

What is your favourite term of abuse or your favourite expletive?

Fuck.  Usually because of a design.

Do you have a creative or business muse?

I’m a big fan of my fellow contemporary jewellers.  We kind of encourage each other.

Are there things you would have done differently?

Many, but then I’d have to kill you.

Who in the world would you most like to have a drink with?

Jane Alexander

What advice would you give to emerging designers?

Always have a plan B, with every design and job.

What's your favourite gadget?

My iPad and the drawing application I recently downloaded.

What's one thing that you haven't done that you would still really like to do?

Just travel for a while. Go somewhere I’ve never been.

What’s the first thing you think of when we say insanity?

My dear friend, Lauren.  That girl entertains me…

What are you passionate about?

Jewellery!  My friends and family are very important to me. As are the headaches they give me.

Do you still have a love for design?

It’s going to take a lot to kill mine.

What are you doing currently?

Designing an entire new range for summer.  Working on one or two little things for friends and family.

What do you do with failed projects?

Make a feature from a fuckup.  Put it to the side.  In a while, relook at it, redesign and rethink and maybe cannibalise some of the ideas for other designs.

The Tale of how

The Tale of How from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

This will all make sense soon....

The big move....

So in between making stock for Design Indaba (the countdown has begun)
I've been moving my studio into a bigger room.
This is what is what it's going to look like until mid March.
Don't you just love the pink wall?

MCQP, Goodluck and a giant cat!

17 December was MCQP (Mother City Queer Projects)
I had the option to go, as Goodluck was playing and they offered me 2 tickets.
Best of all, I walk to their stage
and they had a giant version of my cat made!
It's huge and rad!
For in case you don't know, the cat,
is on their album cover and was a collaboration
between me and the amazingly talented Tenth Hour!
Goodluck was amazing, Jules, crazy!
The party! Wow!!!
Still can't believe

they gave me shout outs to the crowd!
Surreal!

what I've been upto....

So since my last post I've been VERY BUSY!
So here's a short recap of what I've been up to so my monkeys know what been happening:


1. I've been teaching Foundation Course in Design at CPUT (mail me if you want more info)
and also been playing with a new range....

2. I've also been visiting Lauren Fowler (my-female-version-of-me-friend) and The Fringe Arts
where Lauren has been a window artist!

I also was invited to their blogger night, organised by Miss Fowler...

3. Catching up with Oh Dear Megan, girl knows some good coffee joints and
something exciting is in the pipeline kids....

aaaand then:


4. I've been working on a very exciting 2nd range,
that will be exclusively available from The Fringe Arts!!!

Stay Tuned.....

Toby went shopping

I took Toby (my Jack Russel) with when I ran some errands.
Visiting the Fringe Arts, 99 Kloof Street
seeing Lauren Fowler in the window.


Face it. Every designer needs a pup.

Lauren in the window!

My crazy and awesome friend face is going to be sitting in the window of The Fringe Arts and make awesome things.
For those who don't know Lauren Fowler is an illustrator, knitter, graphic designer and thing maker!

She says:
"From today (15th August) until the 15th of September, I've taken over the two box windows as an artist in residence at The Fringe Arts on Kloof street. I'll be working from the windows for the week form 10am - 4pm, come and visit!"

Go look at her like she's a zoo monkey.

A fringe'd press release

ART & DESIGN POP-UP COLLECTIVE THE FRINGE ARTS FINDS A PERMANENT HOME IN KLOOF STREET

From 15 June 2011 South African art & design collective The Fringe Arts will open the doors of its first permanent shop. Aptly called The Fringe on Kloof, the shop will be located on vibrant Kloof Street in Cape Town.

Brainchild of Chantal Louw and Thessa Bos, The Fringe Arts is known for its pop-up shops that feature art, design and ‘bread and butter’ ranges by local artists, designers and illustrators as well as limited edition fine art prints by Warren Editions and Artthrob. Each piece, selected by Louw and Bos, is handmade, conceptualised and manufactured in South Africa.


Louw and Bos have managed to build a collective of South Africa’s top creatives. Encouraged by national and internationalist trend analysts who collectively predict the trend of living local and a demand for locals goods, Louw and Bos focus exclusively on local art and design, showcasing South Africa’s creative edge and its ability to compete internationally in the art and design market.


Participating designers include ceramicists Shirley Fintz and John Bauer, jewellery designers Skermunkil and Beloved Beadwork and surface designers Skinny Laminx and Fabric Nation. Art available at The Fringe Arts includes work by Dale Yudelman and Frank van Reenen and limited edition prints/monotypes by Sanell Aggenbach, Georgina Gratix, Candice Breitz and David Glodblatt.


Says Bos: "We work with an amazing range of talented and inspiring people of whom we are incredibly proud, and who keep surprising us with their work. The fact that they are continuously developing their ranges and that in addition there is so much undiscovered talent in South Africa allows us to always keep changing our offering. And it keeps our jobs very exciting."


In addition to work from the collective of artists and designers, The Fringe on Kloof will also carry Bos and Louw's vintage range, Frintage. Both vintage-fanatics, the duo has carefully selected vintage clothing, accessories and décor in collaboration with well-known local vintage brands such as London Road and The Cooks Room.


Says Louw: "Hearts and eyes are turning to the local scene and discovering not only a sense of quality but an amazing abundance of knowledge garnered from our parents and their parents and so forth. From dolosse to vintage, South Africa has a rich history of upcycling"


The Fringe Arts will launch The Fringe on Kloof on Wednesday 15 June from 6 to 8 pm.

Address: 99B Kloof Street Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 9 to 6 pm, Saturday from 9 to 5 pm.

“The best collection of art and design retail I have ever seen” - Lianne Burton, former editor of House & Leisure and marketing manager for Cape Town Tourism

-------------------------------------

COMPETITION
In celebration of the opening of The Fringe on Kloof, The Fringe Arts is running a competition in collaboration with Eon Hoon Jewellery Design throughout the month of June.

How to enter:

1. Join The Fringe Arts and Eon Hoon Jewellery Design fan pages on Facebook
2. Take a kooky crazy, cool, trendy, hipster, wannabe, interesting photo of yourself in front of The Fringe on Kloof (99B Kloof Street, diagonally opposite Arnold's)
3. Upload the photo to your Facebook and/or Twitter
4. Say something cool about the photo
5. Mention and tag The Fringe Arts and Eon Hoon Jewellery Design in the photo/post
6. Hold thumbs!

Competition closes on 30 June 2011. Winners will be announced on facebook on 1 July 2011.


Follow the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=135828376492501

-------------------------------------

Relaunch of the Fringe Arts

Last night [17 March 2011] was the relaunch of The Fringe Arts as well as their first solo exhibition, Book Paper Scissors by Keri Muller.


Stunning atmosphere.... Lovely Bubbly, great friends.


The "new" shop looks amazing and so very intimate.
I am so impressed with the new designers they found.


Pictured above is my stock, available at The Fringe Arts, Alfred Mall, V&A Waterfront.


And above are the lovely (and slightly crazy, but that's how I like them) owners,
Chantal Louw and Thessa Boss.


But don't forget the lovely art, Keri is amazingly talented!!!!
Go have a look at the new shop, go look at the exhibition while it's running and more importantly, go be amazed!!!

Aftermath of the heart expo...

Thursday (14th Oct) was the I [heart] Hearts Exhibition at The Fringe Arts (at the V&A Waterfront). 20 Hearts were unveiled, each individually designed and artified by a designer that stocks the shop. The proceeds are being split between the artist (or Heartist as we are being called) and the Association for Visual Arts’ (AVA...) Artreach fund in partnership with Spier.

I love the hearts done by Inkheart, one by Nina and one by Kevin, as well as the hearts by Metaxia and Lauren Fowler.

Above is my heart, was gone before I could snap a pic of it with the others. It's awesome to be part of this project. I now have a love for gold leaf and have a hankering to make new stock for the shop. So much to do....

I ♥ Hearts

Tomorrow is the opening of the I <3>

I can't wait.

I did a heart, as did my friendlies at Inkheart (2, cause they are cool like that) and Metaxia.

This is gonna be exciting and I have so many ideas for heart jewellery.

I need to get a cracking...

The Fringe Arts @ The V&A Waterfront.

So kids, I can't believe how time has flown. In May, I randomly strolled into the City Hall in Cape Town to see the Spier Contemporary exhibition and saw this quaint little shop, stocking all manners of pretty things. 5 Months down the line, I have been involved with them over three pop-ups and loving every minute of it. So this little shop is called the Fringe Arts, I've blogged about them before and I wont jabber on about them, you can rather go see their web page, located here...

So 5 months down the line, The Fringe Arts have moved to a new shop in the V&A Waterfront. The shop is beautiful, it's got the most amazing view and not to mention the thingies to buy.

I get lost looking at everything there, I love the combinations of crockery, jewellery, art and even furniture.

So I had a good look around, feeling the need to blog and to brag about this great opportunity. The best news we also recently heard is that The fringe Arts will now also be opening a second store on the Spier Wine Farm, how amazing is that? Guess it's time to get cracking on new stock and idea's

Looking around I found my friend Nina's jewellery, Inkheart Jewellery Design. I love her ribbon necklaces, darn me for being a boy.

And then there is also another friend of mine, Metaxia, with her brass range of jewellery, you know you've got good taste. Just check the view behind the pieces, wow.

And then of course we have my pieces... I love the little stand they found for me. And again check that view.

So go have a look, I can promise you some amazing local talent.

Popping up now!

It's time for the next pop-up of The fringe arts this time they are in The V&A Waterfront in the Victoria and Alfred Mall, right by Den anker.

These are some pics I took when I dropped off my stock, it's going to be beautiful.

So come have a look and even come pop in at the launch party. Meet some of the designers and get some beautiful things.

I'll take some pics tonight of the launch and all the pretty things and people.

I love this shop, they are my favourite stockists, follow them on twitter as well:

www.twitter.com/thefringearts