Kinky maths

First things first,
Had my very first happy customer who bought one of my rings, it was a brilliant feeling

I’ve got a few more customers lined up for the next couple of weeks as well, it’s getting real finally!

Next, I’ve finally mastered (well almost) the horrifically delicate art of the single engagement ring

In all honesty, it was an absolute pain in the backside and took me 5 attempts to make it.

Now down to the dirty geeky stuff.
My current project has the title ‘movement’, but obviously I had to take it a completely different route to everyone else cause I like to make things confusing.

I’ve decided to look at the movement and transformation of mathmatical graphs (it’s more interesting than it sounds…. Promise)

This has meant a lot of messing around with this graph app.

Somehow I’ve got it to being a full body harness that replicates the image of one of the graphs I drew up, using leather and brass.

These are just photos of the prototype though, the finished piece won’t be ready for another 5 weeks but it has the essence of what I’m going for in the finished design.
It’s a lot of work but its alright..

Until we meet again

Bridge the divide

Don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life, my fingers are beginning to get too sore to even try the rings!

Following on with the theme of overlap rings, I’ve made another, but this time a lot thinner, smaller and gold.

BUT, what is more exciting is I’ll be selling these ones!

Ill update the page later once I’ve listed them on etsy.

SIEMPRE GUI

Full circle

Ahhhhh so we meet again…

It’s been a very long while I’ve not been a very good blogger lately after going home for Christmas and getting involved in my latest project in uni as well as planning on starting up selling my jewellery. It’s been pretty hectic I must say!

But I haven’t stopped making things and I thought I’d show them off because, well, why not?!

Well this little gem (no pun intended) is silver 925 set with a half round, cabochon, black agate with a rub over setting. It’s not too shabby

And this one I haven’t stopped wearing is a little cutie too, but it’s just the prototype made from nickel silver.

Ill have the second one and some others ready to sell in the next couple of months so ill it the links up.

Now,
Back to work.

Proprioception

Since being told our first real design project is based on the idea of movement, I’ve become very interested in kinesthetic(moving) jewellery.
It has a magic about it and also I like the idea of being able to have something else to fidget with when I’m bored or procrastinating, most likely the latter..

So first up in this moving jewellery adventure that I’m about to take you on is Yael Sonia

The finish and approach to her work is that of a fine jeweller, but the concept behind the pieces is that of a contemporary designer. This is what sets her apart in the jewellery design world.

Her work is most definitely memorable, I’ve never forgotten about it since the first time I saw it last year and I have a terrible memory. Have a look on her website and have a read of some articles written about her to find out more, you’ll be intrigued for sure.

Next on this journey is Claudio Pino, AKA, A genius.

Need I say much more?

Well yes okay, I probably should..
Pino’s kinetic ring collection has an underlying tone of space and science, with gyroscopes and globular shapes. The contrast of colours and the shapes of each of the pieces having a futuristic feel to them without being too overly done. Each one has its own identity and is just as beautiful as the last. Personally I love them all, but especially the double rings, they’re just magical.

Dukno Yoon is who we’ll be visiting next on our little exploration if kinetics.

Yoon explores the idea of moveable sculpture and combines the, together with wearable piece. The rings which move when the finger is bent and raised have a particular elegance about them. They remind me of little metal fairies in the beautiful way of moving and the delicate movement of the wings.

Yoon has even made a wearable, movable wing face piece, marvellous!!

Well my friends, this is the end of our journey for now.

The next and final designer on our journey into kinesthetics is…..

ME!

Ill be uploading my final collection the minute it is done, providing it isn’t a complete and utter flop that is.

Adios amigos

Patination

I felt like I was back in year 12 chemistry learning about patination and colouration of metal, but it was fun!

Someone’s been a busy bee…

I’ve been AWOL for a while, I do apologise, but it is all in good reason! I have been furiously working away at learning the skills I need to actually become a Jewellery designer.

So obviously made my ring which I’ve already posted, BUT now it’s all polished and beautiful and I’m pretty much in love with it especially since it fits me perfectly.

These are some earrings that I’m still in the process of making from guilding metal but these too I have polished up to look a lot nicer than they previously did as you can see from the insides of them they didn’t look too great before.

And this piece I made for a project called ‘Junk to Jewellery’ obviously, we had to get some junk and make it into jewellery. I chose to use avocado skin because it had the effect of leather and suede and because you can’t really tell from the angle here, I guess I should say it’s a ring too!

A brooch which we made to learn how to do multiple solder joints. This one is made from nickel silver, it’s not a gorgeous design or anything I’d ever work but it’s pretty nice I guess…

Another brooch I’m in the process of making which is an absolute pain to do as so far it’s taken a good 3 days just to get to this point. It has some nickel silver inlay into a sheet of guilding metal. I suggest you never ever do this because you will cry.

Ag

So, I’ve now had 3 sessions of workshop skills and today was the first day I’ve made something (almost) complete and I’m ever so proud of it!

If you can’t tell already, it’s a silver ring! All done by hand, even getting the shape of it as well since it originally started out as a square piece of silver wire and all I need to do now is file and polish it! All the hard stuff is done now so I will be churning out rings like no ones business.

I did nearly lose two fingers, but it was 176% worth it

I LOVE IT

decorate your claws

Make up artist Holly Silius and up and coming jewellery designer Hannah Warner have teamed together to create some pretty amazing pieces of jewellery.
What’s special about these pieces is that they are worn on the nails and are made from solid metal.

They were even featured on the AW12 Mugler runway and have created a storm in the nail art world which has really taken off this year.

The nails were designed using inspiration from nature and raw organic materials, but with Holly’s expertise with positioning of the body and Hannah’s technical skill and creative ability, they’ve created an amazing design team that stretched the boundaries of contemporary jewellery and nail design.

Oxidised silver and the intricate carving looks particularly stunning on these spider web nails

I also like the decadent introduction of emeralds into these gold free form organic structure nails, it adds that extra bit of glam.

These final nails that are so over the top, yet so unbelievably beautiful seem to have been inspired by thistles, especially with the addition of the purple in them too, I’d wear these if I wasn’t too scared I’d scratch my face off.

Now, these nails aren’t cheap as prices range from £40 (around $70) for a single nail and between £200-£500 ($350-800) for a full set, so they are definitely an investment BUT if you love them as much as me and have the money I’d say definitely buy a set because they are stunning and they’re applied the same way as regular false nails so it doesn’t require any special technical appointments to put them on which is a bonus!

We all have to start somewhere

I have officially began my course, and exactly how I wanted to as well, in the workshop cutting sheets of metal into funny shapes and using giant torches to make pieces of guilding metal turn bright red. It was fabulous.
Now, I am currently very bad at it, BUT in eight weeks I should be up and running ready to start making some basic jewellery!
I’ve got a billion ideas buzzing round my head of things I want to make, probably a lot more ambitious than my mere skills will be able to create right now, but also been given a few bespoke designs to do from friends and family which will help me a hell of a lot!
I’m completely absorbed in it already and I haven’t even began to start the really interesting stuff.

Watch this space as I will most definitely be updating on my progress and also I will begin my write ups once again for all you jewellery lovers out there

Adios hombres

J’aime les oeufs

Sorry it’s been quite a while, but I had no idea that moving to a new city would be so much stress! However, I still have time to look through the new issue (it’s more the size of a catalogue) of ‘LOVE’ magazine.

issue 8 autumn winter 2012

While looking through I came across the latest editorial for Faberge jewellery, now I’d never really heard much about Faberge as a fine jewellery company as I always just associate them with their gorgeous decorated eggs, but seeing the eggs translated into wearable pieces has made me fall in love (with eggs)

These were just a couple of my favourites from the huge collection that they have. They’re so dainty and beautiful, yet still have all the detail of the decorative eggs we all know. These ones are only 22mm in height so when you consider how much detail that’s on them it’s astonishing!
Now, they do come with a pretty hefty price tag (all around the £30-£40k+ mark) so I won’t be buying one anytime soon, unless I manage to get Derren Brown to predict the Euromillions numbers for me. Yet, although its a big tag, to be quite honest, I don’t think it’s too bad. Considering the reputation of company and also the unbelievable amount of work that goes into one egg, it’s a pretty reasonable price.
I also love how it makes eggs the new accessory, after all, who doesn’t love eggs?!?! (apart from vegans)