finished Vetkat pendant

Yay, it's done. Although I was hesitant at first about doing Vetkat inspired jewellery, because I convinced myself it could in no way relate to my work, I am really glad I made this piece. I managed to make the theme suit my way of makin jewellery and apply some of the concepts I am working with for my Btech. Aswell as these, I played with a new technique and got myself enamelling again...


A slight problem that I encountered while making this piece, was spending what felt like forever, sanding and filing and sanding and filing to ensure that the back of my setting would get a great highly polished finish. Only to have all the solder run and ruin it when I soldered my little tree...

... After resanding and polishing I ended up glass brushing my piece to give it a matte finish because I wasn't completely happy with the highly polished result.

Vetkat tree... awww, cute.

The photos below show the detail on the back of the setting for the enamel. Originally I was going to pierce out a tree shape and place another piece of enamel behind it, so it could be seen through the pierced shape. Then I started thinking about how the bale would work with the piercing and how I could integrate it into the pendant without it looking like it's been slapped on. That's why I decided to make my little tree. I used forged wires to make this tree, and left the top wire long so that it could be bent over into a bale for the chain...


The back of this pendant took me much longer than the enamel for the front did, which I dont mind at all. I feel like i've 'done my job' when I watch people looking at my jewellery and they admire the front but get a surprise when they turn it over and see the back is as detailed, if not more, than the front.

AngloGold final drawings

To work my AngloGold designs into my Btech theme I used similar shapes and techniques that I have been using in my own pieces of jewellery and I used one of my favourite sea references of zoomed in barnacles, as seen below...

I used the negative shapes from these references and used them in my design as elements to be pierced out, which would allow fabric to be seen through the metal.

Vetkat enamels

For these enamels I decided to experiment with a new technique I've never used before. I rolled fine silver to as thin as it could go, then folded it over and rolled again. I repeated this process a couple of times until I ended up with very very thin silver. I was able to tear the silver without using tin snips...


... my first plan was to place the silver on a copper background and with transparent enamel, enamel over the silver. This would show a contrast between the copper and the colour ontop of the silver. The piece on the bottom left shows this process. I wasnt happy with the shape of my little tree, so I then tried enamelling over silver that I tore off with my hands instead of cutting with tin snips. Unfortuanately the 'Pea' enamel gave me a bit of trouble and the silver ended up forming a Eutectic alloy (where the silver and copper combine, because the coppers melting point is higher than that of the fine silver). This piece can be seen on the bottom right. Ultimately I tried the same technique of tearing little pieces of silver, only this time i enamelled the copper first, then placed the silver on top, put it back into the kiln, and let the silver sink into the enamel slightly... this was my favourite one of the three, and can be seen at the top of the photo...

'Green' pendant & chain

The pictures below show the front and back of my finished pendant for the Shades of Green exhibition. During a discussion about our pieces it was said that the pendant looked too heavy for this particular chain. This could be fixed by adding more links to the chain - not to increase its length, but to make it appear heavier. Or different thicknesses of wire can be used for the links to make the chain look stronger.

The following picture shows the detail on the back of the coral pendant. The coral was very difficult to set as it's incredibly porous and fragile, luckily it didn't break while i was setting it...

Vetkat Designs

After looking at my reference material for this exhibition I sketched a few ideas I had for my piece. Ultimately the one I will manufacture is the pendant seen below...

... For the image of the tree on the front of the pendant I want to use either graphite enamelling or enamelling over etched silver. To include an aspect of my Btech theme into this piece I will be focusing on the 'hidden detail' that I try to include in all my pieces, but without using ocean references, and instead, Vetkat paintings. Below is the painting I used as a reference for this pendant...

The photos below show the other references I considered using and the sketches of possible pieces...

AngloGold sketches

For the AngloGold competition this year I wasnt quite sure what I wanted to design. The theme is very similar to the previous year. Basically, choose a design direction (Steam punk, Dual Purpose / Collaborative, Bold / Sleek / Uncluttered) and along with it comes 2 characters for which you have to design either a piece of jewellery, or an accessory.

my thought process went from designing a steam punk accessory...




... to a steam punk ring...


...to a 'collaborative' ring, which I plan to submit as my design for a piece of jewellery. The character that I am designing for in this category is Florence. In her detailed character description the one thing that stood out for me was her dream to become an interior designer, because of this, I designed a ring that will include patterned fabrics...

Vetkat references

For another exhibition we're taking part in, we are using paintings by artist Vetkat Kruiper as references and designing our pieces around them. When looking through his paintings, these were some of the images that stood out to me...






I plan on using these images in my work by either etching or chasing. At the same time I want to combine my B-Tech theme with the pieces, so I will focus on adding detail to the back of whatever piece I design...

AngloGold prototype...

For my AngloGold prototype I decided to use copper and plasticine. The purpose of the prototype is to guage the size of the piece and how it will look on the body, which will give me a better idea of how to render it for the competition...

The photo below shows the underneath and top of the ring prototype...

'Shades of Green' sketches

oops, meant to add these before my last post...

The following pictures are just little sketches from my design book. They show ideas I have on how to set my sea objects so that the detail behind them is still visible...

'Green' pendant

For this exhibition I plan on making a few pieces of jewellery that I hope would increase peoples awareness of their natural surroundings, by using natural materials. For the first piece I am using a piece of dried coral that I will set and make a pendant...



The two photos below show the open setting I am making for the coral. The nice thing about taking part in this exhibition is that I can work my theme for my B-tech into it. I was really hoping to use all the bits and pieces I pick up when I walk along the beach, and this gives me a great opportunity to. At the same time I will stick to my concept of making the backs of my pieces as interesting, or even more interesting, than the fronts.

'Shades of Green' exhibition

For the 'Shades of Green' exhibition being hosted at Artisan Contemporary Gallery, we have been asked to submit pieces of work that explore the topic of 'going green'. This can be done either in the way we manufacture our jewellery, or the visual message we are creating through our pieces, or even just using the colour green.

An example of 'green' jewellery is that of Ana Hagopian. She uses recycled paper to create these bright colourful rings...

Erica Leal

while looking through the Carrotbox blog I came across a ring manufactured by Erica Leal. Although her style is different to mine, she has managed to make a 'miniature sculpture', not just a piece of jewellery. A lot of the detail and focus is on the under side of the ring, which is a concept I have been exploring with my own jewellery...