Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Mirjam Hiller
Monday, March 28, 2011
Completed Ring
Looking at my finished piece, I am not entirely happy with the setting. I enjoyed experimenting and learning what NOT to do though... The edges of the setting did not fold in the way I had intended, this might have been because I forged the setting before bending it up and soldering, and possibly because my metal was slightly too thick.
The underneath of the setting though I am very happy with! I feel that the shank being bent to the shape of the pierced out sections worked out very well. Since the focus of this piece was to bring detail to the hidden areas of jewellery, much like the hidden world beneath the surface of the sea, I feel that the piece was successful...
attaching the shank...
View from the back...
Friday, March 25, 2011
Setting...
To stay true to the organic nature of the pearl as well as the sea from which it came I am going to experiment with my setting by forging the edges, and then setting it. Once set i would like the silver edges to over lap sections of the pearl and some sections of the pearl not covered by the setting...
Ring Designs...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
'Hidden Detail' Rings
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Reflective Report on Soldered & Enamelled ring...
My aim with this piece was mostly to test a technical problem when working with enamel, which was whether I could torch fire and enamelled element once it has been soldered to something i.e. a shank.
The ring design as one similar to a pair of earrings I had previously made which were inspired by the shape and form of a clam.
Ultimately I found out that you can torch fire enamel onto a soldered object, but it depends on how the objects are soldered, and the melting point of the enamel. With my piece the enamel took a while to become vitreous and as a result of this the shank melted into the element on top slightly, and the area around the solder join became incredibly dirty. To clean the joins then became the next problem because most enamels get cloudy when they come into contact with acid, so I had to paint the acid onto the dirty areas with a brush… which worked quite well.
I learned that it is possible, but risky, to enamel soldered objects…
Friday, March 11, 2011
Soldering & Enamel
The above two photos show the ring before and after being soldered together.
These photos show the ring after the enamel had been torch fired. The enamel I chose usually takes longer to fire than the other transparent enamels, which is why i decided to test it on the solder joins. Once fired, the metal was more dirty than usual, and the top of the shank had melted into the ring slightly. Other than that, the Enamelling was successful and the solder joins were able to be cleaned by applying acid with a paintbrush to avoid acid coming into contact with the enamel.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Design Indaba
The above pictures show how i displayed my jewellery. I used blocks of perspex to elevate my pieces and underneath I placed watercolours I had painted to give it some colour...
These are a few of the pictures I managed to take at the Indaba, my favourites were these little ceramic figures by Sootcookie Ceramics.