Necklace Design

I have produced some sketches and come up with a final design for a necklace for Sara to make, while I help & tutor her through the process. I designed a necklace that I felt had a look of Re-worked to it - similar colours and themes - and featured some small challenges for Sara along the way; some beading, soldering, oxidising and some branding. 

Below are some doodles and the final design (last picture). Despite designing it, I would love it if Sara had any input whether before making it, or whilst in the process of doing so, as I think it would be interesting to see if the materials bring out some creativity. I can't wait to see if Sara enjoys the task as jewellery making can require a lot of patience! We hope to arrange for Sara to come through soon to Aberdeen to get started!

Ideas for beading - Amber / Hematite?

Pendant sketches.

Workshop Schedule

I have been busy trying to make a list for a workshop "schedule" for Sara's day with me learning some metal work techniques. My list contained the following...

1. Saw piercing.

2. Soldering.

3. Filing & Cleaning.

4. Work with Findings.

5. Oxidising.

6. Beading.

When it occurred to me that most briefs I have followed have a physical outcome hence I have decided that to make the day more enjoyable, and rather than just follow some random tasks, I decided to set Sara the task of making a necklace. I think trying to make a piece will tie in nicely with the project as I feel Re-worked is based on acting on ideas quickly and seeing the results to then learn from them. I will produce a small rough sketch of a piece that would incorporate the above list and then talk Sara through the process of making it. I would be interested to see if Sara has any ideas to add to the design and would welcome them! I am really excited to see how Sara will find the day, especially as I often find jewellery making extremely frustrating and often lose my patience with it. Will it be as she expects?! I hope to hear her views both before and after! 

Tea Stains

Here are the pictures of the results of the rose tea staining on the the stud clusters. As hoped there is a nice black rust ring round the clusters and also a nice layer of green on the studs themselves; from the coating of the metal I presume. 

Showing the black stains.

Close up of the clusters and the green coating that has appeared.

I am happy that more colours are being introduced into the work and would like to see more staining coming from the green coating - maybe some rubbings etc.

At the moment I am currently working on a plan for a workshop day with Sara, as we are just at the end of the experimenting stage. Re-worked has had to take a bit of a back seat, especially in the last few months as Sara is studying hard for her final Masters assessments, however we hope to get back on track quickly once it's ended. The works there - it's just not getting uploaded!! I hope to post the workshop plan this week with lots of basic workshop techniques!

Missouri Bend Studio

I came across this work on Flickr via an image on Pinterest by Missouri end Studio after starting my experiment with some rose tea staining. "Embroidered Drawing on Teabag no.5": Hand stitching on teabag adhered to Japanese paper. Very inspiring.

Rose Tea

I noticed recently that the results from a previous experiment have either rusted or have produced salt crystals in unexpected places (the top handle) and I was inspired to see what results would be produced when experimenting with rust combined with other materials. Someone commented here that rusting with tea can produce a different colour so I decided to rust some previous clusters in tea (I chose rose tea as I had some loose leaves).

My hope is that, as the material the clusters are attached to is slightly plastic like, the tea will rinse off and the felt in the clusters will soak up the tea colour as well as the studs rusting with unusual colours so there will be more contrast in the experiment. 

The sample is currently drying off with some salt to speed up the process and possibly to create crystals. The results will be posted soon!

Doodles

So I have been trying to get my head around this project again so have been doodling in prep for some final pieces. I'm not sure if I've posted any sketchbook for this project before but it actually differs from how I use sketchbooks for jewellery design: more flowing and expressive whereas I'm more technical with jewellery. 

Bow: Affected.

The green staining of the bow reminds me of other natural states of disintegration and decomposition  - I think perhaps some other organic processes could be influenced and induced within our project work. More homework required!

Goodies from the Industrial Estates

In search of some inspiration as to where to go next for Re-worked, I had a dander around an industrial estate in Dundee. It was fruitful:

I have come away with a whole host of ideas in terms of form and texture - very much excited by the De-Icer spray can as I love the way it has crumpled and creased.

Creating Clusters

I have recently been using some plastic/rubbery fabric that Sara passed on to me to use as a base for creating clusters - perhaps Sara can shed some light on what the fabric is - it feels like a shower curtain! The material has proved fantastic for this purpose as it crinkles and forms shapes that a soft fabric would not. I have always had an interest with the idea of "clusters" for Re-worked so I thought I'd try creating a few different styles using the same materials. I've combined the felt circles of different sizes with the silver coloured studs. I will take these further by now using some destructive techniques - would the material melt interestingly if branded? - and will post the results at a later date. I like the idea of combining these clusters with the cape style garment I made in the previous post - a definite contender for a final piece I think.

Nikky Bergman

Beautiful brooches that remind me of Re-worked. Love the layering with rust and clustering details.

Cape

I decided instantly that I wanted this collar to be attached to fabric in a cape-like style. Since my sewing skills aren't fantastic, to say the least, I looked at an alternative way of attaching them and happened upon the studs. These were a very quick way of transforming the pieces and adding some detail to the plain fabric. I want to add some dramatic effect to the collar so will most likely heavily embellish it with different experiments then let the marks naturally make their way down the fabric.

Golden Collar

Sewing done. Now to rust. I hope also to print onto silk with this collar.

Finding Relationships

A sister -or brother?!- piece of this ( I imagine?), wine glass bottom cover was seen in the previous post. Another rather distinctive item, I have been playing today with other relative materials, concentrating on contrasting textures and emulative form. Combining other circular pieces with this and trying to build upon the 'case'-like quality of the cover, I am still, as yet, unsure of where to move forward with this. These came as a set of four so there is plenty of scope to experiment.

Unexpected Bouts of Rust

In the Re-worked spirit, these items have taken it upon themselves to adopt some organic rusty prints. I use the word 'prints' loosely, as these are clearly only marks where the fabric has come into contact with some of my other rusted - and now dry- experiments. Still, I find them interesting additions to our project. Spontaneous little marvels.

Pin Soldiers

As with our 'found' rusties, I find these pin oddities very inspiring... They are precious individuals in a packet of hundreds of other pins. I like them lined up as a little family like this.