Monday 23rd Febuary, 2015

Today I began making my ring shanks with the square silver wire(3mm) I decided to go down a square ring shank and a 2 finger ring shank.

 

Friday 13th February, 2015

Today I carried on finishing the rings up and I also drawn and designed my final piece in my sketchbook and bought my silver once I knew the shape I wanted to make and the width of the wire, comparing prices on cooksongold.

Monday 3rd October, 2014

Today I made my sample catalog, taking photo's of my work and thinking of how I would like to display my work, I written an evaluation for my assessment and notes on how I'd like to explain my work to Cerys and Jenny.

I printed off work in the library and organised my files as well as finishing off any sketchbook work to explain my ideas and thought process.

Friday 11th October, 2014

Introduction to stone setting!

Today I was quite nervous about stone setting as I wasn't very knowledable about stones and gems.

Cerys explained a lot to us in a short amount of time and I felt it was so important to keep record of everything through photos and notes.

We created a bezel ring with a stone and shoulders, I felt this session was very fiddly but with more practice I believe I will progress in this technique and the finished pieces will become much more satisfying. I tried my best to keep it neat but piercing something so small was very difficult to me even though I took my time.

Stone setting has triggered my imagination for my project as I've been looking into butterflies and the interesting sections of their bodied before, after and during their transitions I believe stone setting would be a brilliant decoration technique.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with the other ways of stone setting next week!

I'm really interested in Art nouveau (1890s+) and the 'Will to flight' theory and taking a modern spin on this manifesto within my work development. 

I have being researching into designers such as Rene Lalique popular for his jewellery at the time.

"Art Nouveau jewellery by Rene Lalique"

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/98234835592042181/

This is also a wonderful piece by Lucien Gaillard, I love the symmetry and attention to detail, although these pieces seem outdated they're very interesting forms and concepts that I would like to apply to my own work.

"Moth Pendant, ca. 1900 Lucien Gaillard - Gold, enamel, citrine, and horn."

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273804852318063483/

Thursday 9th October, 2014

This morning we had a lecture on Design Thinking and watched some videos about the founders of the comany IDEO http://www.ideo.com/uk/ I found this part of the lecture really interesting hearing these successful people speaking about how their companies work and why. 

This afternoon we discussed precious metals, what the difference between fine silver and sterling silver were and hallmarking!

I loved this part of the day as we got to make a silver wire ring and I was shown a  better way of soldering than I have learnt in the past.

I loved working in sterling silver and hope to use it again in the future.