Bang banging away....Repousse.

As pitch is nasty stuff and not very green at all, i tried different ways of using the idea of repousse.  My intention here was to create the intaglio effect without using a pitch bowl. I tried a stamp system to create the larger more protruding veins and then chased on a scrap piece of pine wood for the more delicate veins. 

 It sort of worked but my silver kept buckling, as there was nothing to support it.

Sustainable Casting....

Cuttlefish cast leaf-test piece. 

sand cast bronze leaf- test piece

Generally casting is used to reproduce delicate or intricate designs or for mass producing a design. Neither of these desired affects can be satisfied through either of these primitive techniques of casting. Sand and Cuttlefish casting are two techniques of primitive casting that are resource minimal, energy saving and pollution free. Bonus with these techniques is that they leave a unusual  beautifully rough finish to your piece (particularly cuttlefish casting) therefore minimal cleaning up is required (further sustainable). They also add an element of surprise, as you never know exactly how the cast will turn out.

Forging out some plate....

In primitive times plate was made by forging out a melted plate. I gave it a try....I cuttlefish cast a square of 29mm X 35mm.  I thought it would be a long process, it took 28minutes to forge it down from 2.2mm to .6mm (the thickness i most often work with) and stretched to 54mm X 63mm. The result of it was a textured plate, rather happy with that. Cold most definately use this process- and it would result in a seriously strong right arm :)

Adding colour....

Deciding and experimenting with ways to add colour. Adding colour isn't a necessity in enabling my aloes to be recognized, but I am drawn to bright colours, it also makes it more interesting and funky.. I love the orange of their flowers and the way the thorned edges of the green leaves are outlined in an orangey tone.

outline colour along the edges, and on the thorns.

 

I still need to take some close up photos of the flowers, the long tubular shape of the petals.

Looking at ways i can use glass seed beads...... i can melt, then squash them to be a similar shape to the flowers (second one from left in the first pic.

Wearable plants.

Pot Plant Ring. 2009. 925, soil, rock rose.

 I made this piece at the end of  3rd yr. The concept - a conscious piece of jewellery. To successfully wear this ring you would have to remain aware(hand flat,palm facing down) at all times. If you forgot and moved  your hand (the way we do in everyday life)-the soil and plant would fall out. A practice in conscious awareness.

I came across a British jeweller and full time lecturer-  Jo Pond. This piece below "Windmill neckpiece" is part of her narrative collection. I haven't been able to find any writing on what this piece is about, but I love the concept of a hanging flower basket. It gave me the idea of turning a pot plant into a neck-piece. If i had to explain the feeling of this piece in one word id use "delicate" , but that is not my aim at all when i manufacture. I relate to this piece only as an idea. The jewellery i make is often quite chunky. 

Jo Pond, "windmill neckpiece".

My flower pot necklace in progress.Experimenting with a simple way to impressionize the flower, possibly through the use of colour.

Working backwards...

The aloe excitement is still up..... I'm designing around the silhouette aloe earrings- I started with the simplest interpretation of the plant, and then realized i should have started by trying to reproduce the real deal first, and then simplify/stylize. So I've put these earrings (temporarily) on hold .

I've started by making a couple of miniature fine silver aloes, They've got a fun feel i think. Because they're sharp and spiky- they're not so well suited for jewellery, but they're a perfect fit for the pot plant concept. Since i made my first "pot plant ring" , I've wanted to make a series to go with it. So now finally, thanks to our "flourish" exhibition in 2 weeks time... my next one is in the making.

a quick sketch before i had decided go go with aloes.

my aloe in the making....

One of my flower boxes at home.

 My own flower box, work in progress.

Getting making....my own Aloe Africanas

Part of the designing fun is to make jewellery that can clearly be identified as aloes without making  it pokey and uncomfy.

My first Aloe jewellery- a pair of earrings, work in progress....

End of yr. exhibition display....

I know from now until the end of the year time is going to fly and before i know it, its going be crazy, hectic and last minute. So I've started planning out what i want to do for my display so that that issue can be sorted and outta the way. One of my ideas is to have water colour design drawings in the background. My water colour skills aren't as great as i expected/hoped them to be. Hopefully with much experimentation and some practice they"ll be top notch for end of yr.

2 of my first attempts on crappy paper. Need to get a few variations of water colour paper and want to try on hand made paper too.

I love Aloes & Succulents

 Indigenous plants are an important factor to the sustainability of a habitat. Native plants attract birds bugs and wildlife and often feed off them either direct or indirectly. Continued human propagation of indigenous trees and plants will help to insure sustainable eco systems. I've decided to do an Aloe and Succulents range, starting with Aloes. There are about 120 different species of aloe in South Africa. Most are indigenous to the Cape, including my favorite- Aloe Africana. Took some photos of a few of the aloes in our garden.....

My favorite. a special friend gave it to me.

my favorite again.... Aloe Africana

Also mad about Rock Roses

Looking at how I'm going to construct recognizable ones. 

Support Local & Indigenous.

For a long time I've considered using indigenous plants as reference to my work. Last year I  got excited (briefly) about the Large Leaf Rock Fig & Coral tree (2 of my favorites). I took some photos of them, attempted repoussing a leaf and made a wax mold and a few ceramic ones, but never turning anything into a piece of jewellery and then blew off the idea.

 From there I've continued to used made up stylized leaf shapes. Now its become apparent to me how much more meaningful and "sustainable" ( from a narrative perspective) it is to use indigenous plant reference. I think It will also give my work a naturally more contemporary feel.

Beautifully adorned

I've collected an assortment of  "cow art", different beautiful cows.

Holy cow -Madurai Temple

A decorated cow

Barbara Philips- Watercolour.

Cant find the artists name for this work, but its striking.

A happy blue cow- Marcia Baldwin

This painting above is by Rebecca Colins, she specializes in custom pet portraits, painting colourfully over digital images. I really dig her fun and funky style. Check out her blog - Art Dog Blog http://artdogblog.blogspot.com

Cartoon style wood cow studs - Craftjuice

Whats cool?

 Colourful decorative painted furniture by Lucas Rise.....Verrrrrry coool :)

Makes me think of festivals and Indian hand-painted cows. For me it all invokes the essence of the word, "special". One of a kind; i just love this. And I want to translate it into my next piece, maybe a cow brooch. Lucas Rise, one day i will buy a piece of your beautiful furniture. 

Manufacturing Practice- Techniques

This list includes the techniques I use to create a desired effect on my metal (this has a relatively small scale negative impact) but some of these may need either alternate methods to ones generally used or have to be cut out completely.

     A.  Piercing- Includes saw frame and saw blades

B.Enameling- Glass enamel, glue, which is organic based gum and a kiln. The problem with kilns is they draw a heck load of electricity. 
      Alternative- Torch firing enamels, this just means there is less room for the various techniques of                      enameling. and that the backs of the pieces will burn slightly- adds to the effect i guess.

 C.Etching- To etch silver nitric acid is used.YUK. big NO NO. So i oust that completely.  
       Alternative- Find out if there is an eco alternative to get a similar effect. 

D.Chasing and Repousse- I make my own Chasing punches out of old tool steel, using old allen keys. Im not sure if using pitch is a problem or if i need to find alternatives. Ive worked on pine scraps, but detail is a problem as the plate needs to be held still. 

 E. Fly pressing- Uses a 20 ton hydrolic jack- second hand ones are easily available.

F.Casting- common lost wax casting technique for the entire process can include the necessity for , A valconizer, silicone, Pattern wax (aka injection wax), flasks, investment(terrible stuff), a de-bubblizer/casting machine and a kiln. 
     Alternative- Sand casting, or cuttle fish casting

G. Blackening- Liver of sulphur (also terrible stuff).
       Alternative- Boiled egg, re usable airtight container. 

      Im looking for other sustainable techniques that can create detail.Not really sure how to go about this just yet. I think a good place to start would be to look into primitive and ancient techniques and tools. By default they mostly made jewellery in a "sustainable" way because they had fewer resources and no mass production abilities. I would also have to look into cutting out certain techniques, like ones that include the use of toxic chemicals, and other un-essential, negative impact methods. 


   
   This post is to continuously be edited and added to.

Egg- The Eco friendly alternative to Liver of Sulphur

So never been quite so excited about egg (other than when I've had a few too many glasses of wine the night before :)). I came across a site called ''Finishings dot com''... and through a conversations thread by jewellers found this out-
The trick here is easy peasy, hard boil an egg, break the shell and squash it a little. Then leave it for a day in an air tight container with the piece of jewellery. If the piece has not been polished it blackens in a couple of hours, if its polished it take a little longer. The areas you don't want blackened cover with tape, i used masking tape but with the moisture from the egg it just peeled off. The solder joints stayed white, but will see with my next test. This is how my test pieces turned out ;) Now to use it on actual jewellery.

the back 1 is fine silver and the front one is 925. 

I Heart Market.....

I made some 'spin off' (simple, therefore cheaper and more sell-able) farm animal things for my market stock. I think they're kinda cute and am definitely going to make extras for me to wear. <3 The response to them was positive. Just examples of some of them.

Cow Shrine finally finished.

This pendant was made as a "cow temple". I suppose quite a personal piece. I  made it as a tribute to  Gopastami (the cow holiday) that is celebrated in India. I just think its so wonderful that they have a day dedicated to cows. My little cow is standing on the alter ready to be "worshiped". The cow is rather small and therefore may seem insignificant standing there, but i like to think of it as this big fuss (the rest of the pendant) that's been created around this cow. I used as little hot work as possible (for eco vibe) and set the front into the back, so the design on the back was originally for practicality, but turned out looking way better then the plain back.(Excuse my lens in the pic, not sure how to eliminate that). I spent what felt like a gazillion hrs making a lllloonnnggg chain for the pendant, for it to hang low. It turned out to not really suit it, so for now its on a belchar chain but have started another variation of the original chain that i think will be better suited.

Original chain.

The new one.

 Now that i thought this pendant was finished I've realized its not.... The front of it needs more contrast, I've highly polished the frame and glass brushed the inside, but its still all too white, I am going to blacken the back, leaving the pierced layered mandala white and frame polished. Although jewellery blackening solution is liver of sulfur - Nasty stuff... so i will find an alternative. Will post new pic once I've done that.