Abstract Jelly Brooch....

Stumbling onto this way of threading the nylon, and then discarding my original idea, is how i enjoy manufacturing jewellery. Like the inspiration behind my pieces, I allow the actual process of manufacturing to be organic and natural. By starting with a basic idea and then 'going with the flow', I feel like my pieces are almost grown. This 'growing' feeling is reinforced by leaving traces of the manufacturing process on the finished piece.

These photos show the finished brooch...

abstract jelly

Although this piece does not look like a jelly fish at first glance, I believe that its development from an original jelly fish shape can be seen through my exploratory drawings.

colourful nylon!

experimenting with nylon

While playing with nylon and a piece of enamelled copper I created another abstract jelly shape...


The punched holes in the jelly fish 'body' were originally supposed to have cotton falling from them. But while sitting at my bench i started to play with the nylon lying around. when the nylon is threaded between two of the holes, it keeps it stiff and bouncy. It also gives it some sort of alien like sea creature look...

jelly-ish things

This weird little jelly is similar to the drawings I did when exploring the shapes of jelly fish...

This Jelly-ish shape will eventually become a brooch. I want the piece to be reminiscent of a Jelly fish without having to be too literal in its shape and colours. The Nylon monofilament (more commonly known as fishing line) is being used as the tentacles in this piece. Although my work has little to do with fishing in particular, the association that the nylon has with the ocean is obvious. Perhaps people will interpret the piece in their own way? seeing the nylon either as a convenient material for tentacles or as some conceptual link to fishing and the sea as a source of food?


The picture above shows the flypressed element after enamelling. The nylon has been looped through the holes and bunched up, I thought that this looked quite interesting, even tho its not exactly a tentacle

Fly press moulds...

In order to get the Jelly fish shape and feel, I used fly pressing. I cut different shapes and sizes out of stacked masonite for the moulds. Once these moulds were made I experimented with melting and drilling the metal before and after pressing. The photo below shows some of these pieces...

Woah, Jelly mould...

I came into the workshop this morning and sitting on the bench next to mine was this blue mould. I immediately thought, lil' blue jellyfish thing!



... so sweet

Jelly Test pieces

In order to try capture the 'jelly-ish' and translucent qualities of jellyfish, I experimented with nylon monofilament to create tentacles. I threaded the nylon through holes punched into a patinated copper dome to create an abstract jellyfish...

Jelly Paintings

I thought I would play around with my paints and graphic jellyfish shapes. I used cotton thread as the tenticles. The reason for this was to capture the movement as well as emphasise the uncontrolled way in which the threads fall. The threads are uncontrolled as are most things in the natural world. I let them fall as they please, which is much like the way I manufacture my jewellery, I let the process guide my design...

Jelly Drawings

For this project I want to play with my references in ways other than manufacturing jewellery pieces. I plan to do some ink drawings and paintings, the reason for this is so that I can explore the references I am working with and at the same time create little works of art with colour. Because colour is such a big part of why the ocean appeals to me as a source of inspiration, I feel like I need to use it in my drawings while designing as well as in my actual pieces.

The pictures below show my versions of little jellies...


... Although these drawings do not look anything like real jellyfish, they are the abstract product of my previous sketches which were more jellyfish like. They are my idea and interpretation of what I want my jellyfish inspired brooches to look like.

Jellyfish sketches

After watching a documentary about Giant Jellyfish I was amazed at how gracefully they glide and float around the ocean, as well as how intimidating a huge group of these placid jellies can be.

I want to try and capture that movement and whimsical appearance that the jellyfish have in my next pieces of jewellery. The photos below show my thinking drawings of possible jellyfish inspired brooches...