Im back!

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!

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!

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!

These are my different flavours!

What Your Flavour!

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

Nora Fok

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

Private Work!

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

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!

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!

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

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.