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.

A rosary for one, but one for all

This little pretty thing is yet another of my 10 pieces.... It's technically a set, with a mens ring and 2 ladies rings together with this rosary. It's a contemporary twist on the 5 decade rosary... For those of us who aren't catholic... a decade is a set of 10 beads with a larger or spacer bead between them... this one has 5 sets of 10 corals beads with a silver chernier spacer bead adn is linked with wire head pins. the middle is a heart on a gallery connection the beads to the cross which is hand made. Sadly... I sold it to a very nice lady. Took a lot to part with it... The piece itself has been so popular that I am remaking it and making a set of rosaries for an exhibition that I'm planning with a photographer friend of mine.