Mirjam Hiller

While browsing through The Carrot Box Blog, I found a Jeweller called Mirjim Hiller from Germany. These rings are interesting and I find that they relate to my work because the emphasis to detail on the shanks is as much as on top of the ring itself...

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...

To make sure the shank flowed into the setting I tapered and forged the ends, then moulded them around the shapes that i had previously pierced out. Additional wire was added to the shank so that it could form a complete frame around the pierced out sections on the setting.

View from the back...

Seeing as the focus with these rings is what happens underneath the ring, i decided to pierce sections of the setting out. This was because the underneath of the pearl was as pretty as the top, and it would be a waste to cover it up.

Setting...

The picture below shows the uneven sides of the blister pearl.

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...

The pictures below show drawings for the design of the first ring of the series I will be making. The Stone that I will be setting is a blister pearl, the edges or the pearl are raised and lower in some parts, which will make it difficult to set...

'Hidden Detail' Rings

For my next project, I plan to make a series of rings that are mini sculptures or pieces of art. They will be 'mini sculptures' in the sense that they are interesting when off the body and have detail from all angles, not just the top view.

Because I will be using the Ocean (coral, shells etc) I want to focus on the idea that its surface is so plain and almost boring, yet below it is a world that is so complex and removed from ours. I will work this concept into my rings by playing with settings and differents stones, so the top view will be simple, and most of the detail will be on the underside of the ring and the shank.

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…

Soldering & Enamel

For a while now I've been wanting to test what would happen if I torch fired enamel on a piece of jewellery that had already been soldered together...



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.

Design Indaba

Design Indaba was amazing! It was such a wonderful experience to be able to display my jewellery and meet all sorts of interesting people.




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.