Superhero Cufflinks

How awesome are these cufflinks?

These are for a wedding and the grooms side.

One for each of his groomsmen (6 pairs)

Each one is a hero's logo with the guys initials set in clear resin.

busy, busy boy....

So I've been a busy busy boy...

This is what I've been keeping myself busy with... The upper picture are cufflinks I've made for my body of work going towards my Btech. I had loads of fun with them, and I'm going to make one or two more versions of them.... 3 down, 37 left....

And then these little beauties are stock for the little black heart range... Yes finally I've started making... The designs were finalised a week ago and orders have been coming in from people who have seen them, so stockpiling needs to be done... Next I'm doing the razorblades...

So this is what I've been busy with, I'm teaching at the same time so I keep myself busy with students, studies and silver.... The 3 S's for me....

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...

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!