Platinum Ring

My finished platinum piece. 

Im so happy that I finished because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish it in the time for the hand in, although I was only able to do 3 rings and not 5. I decided to do the edges of the rings highly polished and the sides with a brush finish to give the rings more of a contrast.

Platinum Rings

Going to be starting my platinum today, i'm a few days behind everyone due to the change in plans to the casting. So I have 2 days to make the 5 rings which took me 4 days to make in the silver, really hoping I will be able to finish in time, because this is probably the first time im doing a platnium project which I really like the design of and I feel

Lotus Stack Ring (Silver)

Completed my silver prototype for my platinum piece. 

I am very happy with how it turned out except for a few places which I should have sanded before I added on the toppers but I guess that is why we do the prototypes.

Fustration

So after 2 days of doing my rhino and trying to figure how to do my cut so that it doesn't look rough I have now been told that I am no longer allowed to cast. Yesterday it was a great idea and today I cant do it. 

I am feeling very disheartened about my whole B-tech. It feel like every time I start doing something it gets put down.

Lotus Stack Ring 2nd Wax Cut.

This is my second attempt at my wax cuts. I am much happier with how they turned out because I made the gaps larger and this let the cut be much cleaner.

 I decided to try the stack ring with 5 individual rings. When I did it with 3 last time you only got the layers from the one side, by doing 5 rings I feel that it now looks like a completed piece of jewellery.

For this cut I joined all 3 of the rings together, to get a better feel for what its going to look like.

Lotus Stack Ring 1st Wax Cut

These are wax cut outs which I made for my platinum prototype. 

I decided to wax cut them because of the commercially viable aspect to the theme this year.

They are stack rings (which are very popular) and when they are worn together they look like a lotus. I also like the layers which are created when stacked.

The lotus also fits into this category well because the piece are for young women celebrating success and achievement, and the lotus represents over coming things.

I am not completely happy with these because I made the gaps between the "petals" too small and when cut they came out rough because the ball bur couldn't get in there.

Contemporary???

So according to one of the lecturers my jewellery is not contemporary jewellery but craft jewellery.
The reasons that she says its not contemporary was because I am using traditional techniques (filigree) and typical shapes (tear drop).
This throws a little spanner in the works seeing that the tittle of my B-tech is Blurring Boundaries - Diffusing contemporary jewellery to commercial jewellery.
I am going to look into what craft jewellery is because from my understanding craft is a umbrella term for hand-made objects.

When asked where I think my jewellery falls in the very large category of contemporary jewellery my answer was studio jewellery, art jewellery and author jewellery (maybe the last is a bit of a push) but I will explain why I answered these in future blog posts.

Cast Africa's

For the Palmiet exhibition we needed to create pieces inspired by nature. 

The way I did this was by using my Africa castings from my "Hello Pretty" pieces and created more organic forms from them. This was when I was feeling very stuck because I started 2013 by doing the Africa's and was not sure how my jewellery was going to grow from the commercial Africa pieces to the contemporary jewellery I wanted to create. 

At this point I was not diffusing a large piece of jewellery into smaller spin off pieces but was using a concentration of one shape to create bigger pieces.

Africa Spirals

This is a "collection" of pieces which I did for The Thuthuka Competition last year. 

I really enjoyed making these pieces because of the filigree and because I was using the Africa shape but it was almost hidden in the form of the pieces. Out of these pieces I defiantly feel that the earrings were the most successful, although the brooch had the most work (time) put into it.

Africa Necklaces

When putting our jewellery out on display I realised that I had sold all of my Africa Necklaces and rings which were a huge part of my B-tech in 2013. When I saw that I started to panic because in my head if I made those pieces they should be there, otherwise how will people know how much actual work went into making that collection.

After talking to my lecturer I realised that because I have sold the pieces and don't have them to display means that something that I did worked and a lot of work went into it. The proof of the work being done is on my Hello Pretty page.

Time Management

Today we had to put out all our jewellery from our year and a half of doing out B-tech. 

The whole idea (I think) was to show us how much we have and to see what direction we are actually going in. When I put the jewellery pieces into groups I had a total of 4 "pieces" (collections) which means that I really need to make more. I think my problem is that for a long time I felt stuck in terms of what to make and then when I finally started doing something that I was really excited about I had to start my writing for my Chapter 1 and i'm not so good at multitasking. 

So maybe what I should try do is allocate days to workshop time and days for writing in this way (in theory) nothing  will be neglected.

Michelle Pujol Interview

"My jewellery is divided into 2 styles of jewellery making, Sculptural and Commercial. The complex sculptural works are my core ideas. These are usually large cocktail rings which capture the essence of my subject matter. I use the excuse of exhibitions to play, have fun and create something extravagant and also by doing so give myself a rich base of design to work from. These ideas are then defused into ranges which stem from these original forms but fit a more commercial market……they become the everyday ware. By making this way all aspects of my creativity are fulfilled and my customers have come to appreciate and seek unique once of pieces."

http://markethere.com.au/ 

 http://www.michellepujoljewellery.bigcartel.com/

http://www.michellepujoljewellery.bigcartel.com/