Big Ring Designs

These are just some of the design drawings i did when thinking about the ring i was going to make for this project

The Big Ring

For this fashion project I have been browsing the internet and observing the types of jewellery people are wearing around the city. After cruising around and soaking it all in, I have decided that ‘The Big Ring’ is something that is definitely in fashion. Large, chunky oversized rings are all over the place. Most of the ones I have seen worn by people around the shops are costume jewellery rings, or ‘bling’ rings.

I want to take this idea of a big ring and apply my own style/design to it. And I would also like to make smaller wearable ‘spin off’ rings.

Here are some of my previous big rings...

Picnic Meeting at Bot Gardens

We had our 4th year meeting this last week at Bot Gardens. It was so pretty even though there were some odd bird smells =)

Another Coral Ring...

After making the first forged shank / coral ring, i decided to make another slightly different one. After completing it i noticed that the two fit together quite nicely, so this has given me the idea to create many separate rings that could be worn together, or displayed together.

le la Moda..

A good friend of mine, Tiffany McGee, writes fashion feature/columns for an international fashion website, le la Moda. And this last month she asked if she could do a feature on me! here it is...

http://www.lelamoda.com/2010/03/19/south-african-jewelry-designer-lauren-batchelor/

Tiff also has her own fashion blog that she updates regularly...

http://loveaffairwithfashion.blogspot.com/

I thought it was really fantastic that this feature on me was written for a fashion website when we are in the middle of a fashion based project. yay!

Everybody loves Burton...

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is so so so so good. Great even! Not from a jewellery point of view obviously...unless you're looking at the queens corset thing. But in a 'I wanna be entertained and look really cool in my 3D glasses' kinda way, it really delivered.


and Helena Bonham Carter....Wow!

Flower / Coral Ring

I manufactured one of my previous designs from my design book, and this was the ring that I made...

I really love the strong base of the shank which is juxdaposed with the delicate forged end, and balanced with the coral flower...

Ring Sketches

These are some sketches taken from my design book, I have been playing around with forged shanks for a while, and I would like to make the shanks a more prominent feature in my rings. These sketches explore the different ways i could do that, while using my 'coral' elements. Im hoping to continue with these designs and somehow link them to our fashion theme.

Fashion Project

For our next project we will be designing a piece of jewellery around the theme of 'fashion'. Before i can start designing i need to ask myself, what do i think is fashionable? and why? and how can i incorporate something 'in fashion' into my jewellery?
I plan to keep my own personal design style and simply add a fashion aspect to it.

Splash Project Reflection

For this project, firstly, I knew I wanted to keep the underlying theme (the sea/nature) but move away from my previous collection. I looked at my references I have collected over the last year and came across this picture of a lovely orange coral. I though of how I could capture the beauty and shape of this coral and I decided fly pressing would be the best way.

I decided to make and use a fly press because it was the best way to capture the shape and form of this particular coral. I also wanted to try something new that I hadn’t used in any of my previous projects, and a technique that I could still incorporate enamelling with.

Firstly I fly pressed a few plain silver test pieces, then to get the texture of the coral I drilled different sized holes into the metal beforehand. When I fly pressed this particular piece it broke and ‘exploded’ open along the drilled holes. This was lovely in that it made the process itself organic and unpredictable, as is nature. I used this test piece in my project and I made a ring.

This project has shown me that I design as I work. I start off with a basic idea, but if something changes or happens, I am happy to adapt and alter my design if I think it will be beneficial. My theory is that if something (a ‘mistake’) happens and the mistake itself is beautiful; don’t push it aside because it doesn’t fit in. Adapt and grow, make it part of the process.

I think the customer/viewer can experience this in my piece just by looking at it. You can tell that there was an element of chance in the creation of this piece. There is no formula for creating the ‘exploded’ fly pressed element.

There are some things that need to be resolved with this piece. The setting definitely needs to be refined, and I need to figure out the best way to set odd shaped elements, and practice this.