Taryn Koekemoer

Im back!

2009-07-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, didn't realize that i had been ignoring my blog for so long. Sorry! But it has been a busy few weeks, first I was my friends Bridesmaid and i have now been running around organizing my display for the exhibition that I am taking part in at artspace in Durban. And while doing that i have been making jewellery.

Flavours is an exhibition by Durban emerging jewellers which is going to be held at artSpace on Monday the 13th July at 18.00 so please, if you are in or from the Durban area, come and have a look. The exhibition will run until the 1st August.
This is the exhibition that we have all been preparing for.

Below are a few new pieces that I have been making over the last few weeks.

These earrings are made of black wooden disks, the red beads at the top are real coral beads, then silver wire work on top with a silver flower.

This a bracelet that I made from stained wooden round disks and a T bar clasp, the T bar is decorated as a flower garden.

This a new wooden pendant that I made with forged wire and silver flowers.

New Piece 2!

2009-05-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

Its been a long day but I have finally finished my new piece and very excited about how it turned out. I found a few wooden beads that I had brought a while back and decided that they would be perfect for the new bracelet. I then started cutting them in half and they fitted perfectly in the curves that I wanted them to. I then had to make a of how the wooden half beads would stay in place so I made pins that were soldered to the bracelet and the pin went into a small hole on the other side of the bead and glued together for extra strength.

My New Piece!

2009-05-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

OK, so Ive been a bit off lately and now I'm getting back on track with things. I started making this piece, it started as just a wire bracelet but I have now decided to add more to it. I decided there was too much metal so now I trying to add wood to it to incorporate my natural or organic material for it to stick to my theme.

Flavours!

2009-05-18T02:12:00.000-07:00

These are my different flavours!

What Your Flavour!

2009-05-12T01:45:00.000-07:00

My flavour is nature, it beauty and glorious nature, something that God has created.

Nora Fok

2009-04-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

Nora Fok's work really fascinates me. Her work is inspired by different aspects of nature. She manily uses non-precious materials. She likes to emphasize craft and artisty. Nora creates wearable pieces from dyed nylon that she weaves, knots, tied and knitted.

Sharon Church

2009-04-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

One of the artist that I have found very interesting is Sharon Church. Most of her pieces are inspired by the plants in her garden. All her pieces are very rich in symbolic and has significance. She says, "natural world is symbolic of life with its cycles of growth, decay, death and renewal."

Making More Bangles!

2009-03-26T03:16:00.000-07:00

At the moment, I working on trying to make the wooden bangles thinner, because I feel that my bangles at the moment are too wide and with thinner widths the bangles are more for market than for statement pieces. I wanting to cut it in half.

New Pieces!

2009-03-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

I have finished these two pieces, a bangle and a pendant. I have enjoyed working with wood and the things you can do with this material. I'm hoping that the vein on the bangle resembles of just looks like a vein plant.

Processing Thoughts!

2009-03-17T02:28:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days I have been working on a project that takes a lot of time, wire and hammering. I have made a few wooden bangles and am not working on the wire work for the top of the bangle. I'm hoping that the wire work will resemble veins for a plant.

Design Ideas!

2009-03-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

These are a few design Ideas that I have been working on at the moment all incorporating wood and silver.

Private Work!

2009-03-02T05:53:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder if it wasn't for my mother I wouldn't be in business. Last week I made a ring for her that came out very well. At least I thought anyway. It was a black Diamond that my mom brought off Bidorbuy and I set it in a square setting, on the claws each claw had a diamond set, on the shank on either side of the main setting 3 diamonds where set. These are very good pictures.

The Next Process

2009-02-26T02:22:00.000-08:00

After cutting the wooden bangles, I have to sandpaper the bangles down as they have rough edge's and patches on the surface of the wood. I have to make sure that the wooden bangle is smooth as anything, its very important as if it isn't smooth it will cause a delay at a later stage in the process. Once its sanded properly, we mix polyurethane and water it down with turpentine. With that I paint a thin layer onto the wood and leace it to dry for 2 - 4 hours , once its dry, I sandpaper it down as there maybe bumbs or bubbles, once sandpapered I repeat the process with the paint. This process is repeated 3 - 4 times. This solution makes the wooden bangle a lot stronger and brings out the grain of the wood.

At a later stage of today I will be posting some pictures of the process.

Making a wooden bangle!

2009-02-25T06:06:00.000-08:00

Over the last week I have been thinking about making my own wooden bangles and using my designs to incorporate the wooden bangles. So I started on a long search for the equipment. First I had to ask around on who had a bench drill and from there I had to find out where I could find the drills I was looking for. I had to buy a set of round tube drills, which was a little bit expensive, but if you buy them in a set it worked out cheaper than buying them separately.

While setting up the bench drill, you have to make sure every thing is lined up well otherwise if while drilling and the drill isn't lined up you could hit the drill with the steal stand, making the drill blunt.

Once cutting the outside I use a vice to hole the solid piece but I don't make it too hard because once the inside is cut out I was scared the it would snap, so I don't crank it too tight. Once the middle is cut you have a bangle that just needs tons of sanding.

More Private Work!

2009-02-17T03:30:00.000-08:00

Over the december holidays I was asked to make a few different items.

First was a pendant for a family member, she had bought the stones on Bidorbuy. A website that as acutions every Wednesday in South Africa. She had gotten a blue topaz and an unusual shaped opal. Stunning stones. She wanted them set in white gold but because she couldn't afford white gold, so we set them in silver instead.

This next piece was half my design and half the customers design, she wanted a bracelet, but big, bold and chunky yet not a complicated design. She like a pendant I made in 2nd year where I made a dome and made glass beads to be suspended in the middle of the dome.

The bracelet is made of many dome and instead of the glass bead, I made silver beads that went inside the domes, once I had soldered the domes together, it became a battle to slighlty bend the domes to fit the shape of the wrist, it was a challenge but a good one and I think it came out very well and I love it so much that I want to make one for myself.

Above is my 2nd year piece.and the bracelet I helped design and made.

The next ring I made was also a challenge, for the first time in my life I got to make or should I say alloy Rose Gold. It was difficult but now I know the secret to making rose gold. The rose gold strip is placed over a silver band. But what had happened was that I had filed a grove into the silver band thinking that it would prevent the rose gold band from coming off the silver band, and then in the process I landed up making the rose gold band spin like a stress ring, was not what I wanted but when the customer saw it and started playing with it she was happy. So we didnt change it.

Creations Over The Xmas Holidays

2009-02-17T02:46:00.000-08:00

Well this last season has been short but on the other hand too long! I have been really busy over the last couple of months.

At the beginning of our hoilday in November, there where a few of us from tech that were getting together and where trying to sell some of our jewellery at the "I heart market" in Durban, the last 3 weekends before Christmas and with that we where all busy trying to make as much stock as we could.

These are a few pieces that I have made and am hoping to sell. From the market I did recieve alot of feed back from poeple that had taken my card and are wanting once off pieces.

Private Jobs.

2008-11-13T04:57:00.000-08:00

In amongst everything else with the end of year so and preparing for it I have been very busy in private jobs for my own customers. The first piece, A friend of mine owns a farm and carved a small piece of wood into a heart for his girlfriend and he wanted it to be a pendant, so I made the pieces to make it into a pendant. I found myself loving the idea of wooden pendant that have been carved and so I'm going to start trying to carve wood for myself or at least shape it.

The second piece is my best friends engagement ring, I was so excited when her boyfriend phoned me to ask if I would make the ring. I think that it just made it that little more special as her friend made it, He proposed last night at bible study infront of everyone and she cant stop looking at it and showing it off. I'm so glade that she likes it. This isn't a very good photo, but I have told her she has to bring it back so I can take a better photo.

End of Year Show.

2008-11-13T04:40:00.000-08:00

At the end of every year we have a show to display our work that we had done over the past year. It's very stressful and nerves are in the air and people start to panic about displays and stands for the jewellery.Below is my display for this years end of year show. I made a glass box to encase my jewellery.

Here are a few of my friends with their displays.
This is Jadi Clark and her jewellery is all about interactive colourful jewellery, she mostly makes fun and colourful jewellery.

This is Kelly,

And this is Lusanda.

Show case!

2008-11-05T07:38:00.001-08:00

At the end of every year the third and fourth years have and end of year show. The third years get to show their new personal project pieces and the fourth years get to show what they have done over their the year or years. This year I have made a glass box to put over my pieces, with a lock on. The steel frame is from my mothers work. the reps at her work said that if I could use it then take it. As to you can see from the picture below, there are a few lings that I'm wanting to change on the steel frame itself. Because my work is all about nature and the purity of it I have decided to put flowers around the steel bottom to make it look like a garden theme. On the wall behind my stand I'm going to put photos of my other pieces as I'm not putting all my pieces into the show case otherwise it will be too crowded.

Wooden Ring!

2008-10-28T01:15:00.000-07:00

I just got this sudden burst of inspiration with the wooden disks that I have been using. I have so many ideas that I have found myself stumped on where to start.

I made a ring below of wood and silver wires act as veins holding the wood. The way the veins interlink is to represent the confusing feeling I have when there is just too much that has to be done and I don't know where to start.

More Wood!

2008-10-17T02:56:00.000-07:00

I've sort of been on my own mission lately and trying to Incorporated new materials to my jewellery. When I made that first pair of wooden earrings I realized that I enjoyed working with wood and had more pieces that I wanted to make, its like designs have been pouring out my head, I have so many ideas there's just not enough time in the day to get them out and the more I working the more ideas keep popping into my head.
I been wearing my wooden earring and have been given orders for them and now I have to try keep up with not only my head but also the orders.
Below are a few more jewellery pieces that I have made. One of the girls that I work with asked for a pendant that matched the earrings that I made last week.

Pendant made of wood with small silver flowers riveted and a mother of pearl flower carved shell in the middle hanging off a brown organza ribbon.

Wooden earrings cut to a pear shape with small silver flowers riveted to the wood. They so light you forget that you have them on. I feel that they simple yet elegant.

This is another pair that I have just made, the only problem with these are that they are sightly heavy on the ear. They that the two different shades of wood giving them that contrast and they have two small silver flowers riveted and that the mother of pearl shell carved flowers.

The next two pairs of earrings are just plain silver flowers that I made into studs and little sweet dangle earrings. They very light and I feel they are a bit to plain for my liking but I have a few orders from friends and family for them. So they work I guess.

Memories!

2008-10-11T09:36:00.001-07:00

I have just had to deal with a close friends death and its had me really down lately. She was such a wonderful person and always ready to have fun and cause a little trouble every now and then, she was full of life and lived each day as if it was her last. She loved nature and she always recognised the good and purity in everything and everyone even if you couldn't see it.

In the last blog I showed a whole lot of stuff that I found while shopping. I decided to design a piece that I know my friend would of worn and also to symbolize her in a way. The first pair of earrings is made of black wood which reminds me of death, I then designed a simple yet complex little Flower that represents Sarah (my friend) as her soul and the white flower is carved mother of pearl shell and that for me represent and symbolizes the good purity of her soul.

This next set of earrings, well they where just an idea that I had after making the top pair. The great thing out these earrings is that they not heavy at all, I wore a pair today and I didn't even remember that I had them on. I felt really pleased when someone stopped me and commented me on my earrings.

Ideas!

2008-10-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

I went shopping the other day and found a whole lot of things that caught my eye. There are wooden disks, clay roses and some shell flowers. I suddenly had a few ideas that I needed to get out of my system. It was like they were hunting me. So here I start.

I have started playing with the wooden disks and disks of pierced metal and I started layering them to see what they would look like. I felt that it gave the effect that I wanted, but the metal disks need more piercing and more intricate patterns on the metal to show the colour of the wood a lot more.

My Garden!

2008-10-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, my garden is growing so well and they really are blooming nicely. I have stared building my own little green house as I want to start growing Orchids. I'm also wanting to plant more flowers in the garden, now that I know they wont die on me or at least I hope not.

Daddy!

2008-09-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Today, two years ago my father died and today I sit and remember all the silly things he did and things he taught me and showed me. I found a poem that I want to dedicate to my father on this day.

I love you, Dad, for all the things you did.
You made me laugh when I was feeling blue.
You could untie the hardest knot of all,
Although I had tugged the lace until it was small.

You knew the the reason for most everything,
Like why it rained and why bees sometimes sting,
Like why the sun came up and flowers bloom,
And why a jet created a sonic boom.

You are the closest friend Ive ever had.
You shared with me the times both good and bad.
I love you, Dad, for all the things you did,
But most of all I love you, Dad, For you.

Wild Rose Earrings!

2008-09-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

I have finished my Wild Rose earrings, but there are a few technical problems that I still have to work on. I feel that you cant really see the colour stone, so I feel that the stone needs to be bigger and the wire should be thinner. So will be making new ones and see how they come out.

Wild Rose Process!

2008-09-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

As you have seen from my last post I have been designing a new range of flowers, the Wild Rose. I have been spending a lot of time trying to get the right texture. I have made a few test pieces and so far they are working. Once I found the texture that I wanted to use I felt that the piece would need colour as wild roses come in many different colours, so I decided to use colour stones.

Young Artists!

2008-09-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Friday night was exciting, our local High School has an evening every year for their grade 12 pupils to show their art work and designs. A family friend of ours had taken part in it and we went to the evening show. It was wonderful to see what the younger generation is up to and thinking in terms of design, it was mostly dresses that they design but the project was wearable art, it took me back to when I was in grade 12 and had to do our wearable art fashion show. But it was great to see so many different styles of wearable art. My favourite was a young lady (who asked not to be mentioned) who made a very short but beautiful creation, using colourful paper into flower an making the flowers into a dress. My friendas dress is to the right and the dress that I loved is below.

Thinking!

2008-09-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

I have found myself a bit stuck on the Daises range, so I have started designing for a new flower range Wild Roses. As you have seen from the picture below, you can see a small process that I have gone though to get to my design and some test pieces that I have started making.

I have been looking at the basic shape of the wild rose petals and have used these shapes to create my simple flower shape. From there its just experimenting with my different textures that I know and think will work for the piece that I have in mind. I'm already thinking of using coloured stones in the middle with wires holding the stone in, acting like claws. I'm at the moment, working on that.

Planting Plants!

2008-09-12T01:03:00.000-07:00

Its just 8 days into spring and all you hear are the birds that wake you up in the morning or in my case the birds and the bee's, I have a nut tree outside my bedroom window and in spring the bees start coming back. I woke up yesterday I felt some what house bound and getting home sick, as in being at home to much and not getting out a lot. So I have decided to start my own little flower garden. Its something to keep me busy and out of the house in the morning. Ive been so excited to start my little flower garden. Even my brother Jason got his hand dirty and helped me.

Thoughts

2008-09-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I have been doing some of my own research for a presentation on my work for the 3rd years at collage but have some how stumbled on to a few artist that I have really enjoyed. The first one is Hannah Simpson. I love the simple flower shape but what I enjoyed the most about her pieces is the texture that she adds.

Hannah Simpson
Ref: http://www.dazzle-exhibitions.com/

The second jeweller that I found very intresting was Alexis Dove. A designer of a few ranges but one inpurticure caught my eye and that was the Wild Rose collection. These piece sort of reminded me of the flowers I use to make last year in my 3rd year.

Alexis Dove

Ref: www.alexisdove.com

SPRING!

2008-08-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

When you wake up and all you hear are the birds singing you know Spring is on the way. Its such an exciting time, you see and hear birds, the grass gets greener, the trees start springing to life and the flowers start to blossom. Things become brighter with colour, and peoples moods become brighter with day light. What I enjoy the most about Spring starting, is the house magazines, they start showing you how you can decorate your house with flowers and pot plants, they some how capture the beauty of the flowers in their photos, you just cant stop looking at these pictures, they just so stunning.

This is one of the magazines that I buy and enjoy their ideas. This is the cover of their Spring addition that just come out. Inside they have stunning photos of flower arrangements you could do to bring spring into your home. I love their main heading "Frolic with Flowers".

Holiday!

2008-08-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

My family and I are going on holiday, I'm sooooooo excited. I remind myself of my father, he loved going on holiday to Port St John's in the Transky. I love it there to. Its the perfect place to be or live. Its such a lovely place. So peaceful, quiet and tons of nature to observe, not much to do but it helps get your mind off things that are happening in your life. The last time we went to Port St Johns was to scatter my dads ashes July last year. My father and I would sit outside where ever we where staying and just listen to the birds, water, and the sounds of nature around us. These are a few places that we stayed at last time we went to the Transky.

This year we going North, up country , I'm not to sure where but am just excited to think about going on holiday and getting away from real life, even if its just for 5 days.

Flower bracelet

2008-08-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

The past few days I have been making a bracelet to match my earrings and my rings from my stylized daisies. So far I have made the flower but I'm battling with the clasp and which one is the best for this piece.

A Ring For A Friend!

2008-08-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

I have had to put a side a my own work for a small amount of time to manufacture a 9ct yellow gold ring for a friend of mine. I hated it at first, 9ct yellow gold is so hard to work with, I had to start the square setting, ohhhh, about 4 times till I got it as perfect as I could. But the shank was just as much of a pain to make. But I think it turned out very well and my friend was over the moon with it.

Platinum piece!

2008-08-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the fourth years had to enter the PlatAfrica competition, we had to design and manufacture the piece out of platinum that was given to us by our tech. The theme was Anniversary and we had ti design a piece that celebrated anniversary of some sort. I design and manufactured a piece that was a remembrance piece to my father. I decided to make a simple looking piece, I had never used platinum before, it was my first time, at first I hated it as you had to anniel the metal so often and it takes so long to pull wire. I then got to the forging part on my piece and started to like it, what I like was that you could roll the metal so thin and then hammer it even thinner and it is still so strong.

Thoughts!

2008-08-15T07:07:00.002-07:00

My father died in 2006 just as I was going into my 3rd year at tech and just as we started our personal projects. My father and I had a song named "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle. In my 3rd year I started creating jewellery with the shape and forms of butterflies and flowers. Starting my 4th year I found myself going in a different direction some unknown reason. A few weeks ago I was Helping my mother clean out a cupboard and found a drawing my father did of a rose and dated it 1982. I suddenly realized what I had been missing and that's my flowers that I had made.

I Started thinking about my flowers and looking at other flowers, looking at their shapes, forms and what they mean. I have been looking at the Daisy flower and have taken the simple shape of the petals and have created my own Daisy flower, except they out of metal. Daisy means innocence and purity, they use Daisie's to cheer people up, they cheer me up, Ive been looking at the normall white and yellow daisy flower but you can get different Daisies in a vibrant rainbow of colours.