Final Exam Display

For my final display I continued with my use of jars to show my pieces. I found that the distortion created by the water and glass was particularly prominent in the dark. The way that the lights highlighted my pieces in the dark reminded me of how deep sea creatures look while being filmed when they are illuminated by the camera lights.



I noticed my pieces being further distorted when I held the camera at a low angle. This angle showed the piece reflected in the surface of the water.



To create this deep sea feeling, and further enhance the distortion and context of my pieces, I should in the future display my jewellery illuminated in the dark.

Exhibition at Colombo

When reflecting on this exhibition and deciding what worked and what could have been improved, I thought about this...

Each person could see a collection of jewellery or any kind of art subjectively. So displaying my work in context helps the viewer understand the background and enhance the actual collection. The sand and water further hinted that my jewellery was 'from the ocean'. For my final exhibition I should explore this display idea further by creating a similar display that allows my pieces to be picked up and explored (not in bottles).
Feedback that I recieved about my display was that the jars forced the viewer to engage with my work. Because people had to bend down and look into the jars it demanded more attention. Another comment that was made was about the water and how it distorts the shape and colours of the piece once submerged.


Photo: Jenni McKenzie
Photo: Matthew Stroud
Photo: Jenni McKenzie
Photo: Jenni McKenzie
Photo: Matthew Stroud
Photo: Jenni McKenzie

Soooshi

I have been craving sushi ALL DAY.
So when I came across this ring it made me very happy...but then very sad, because I still need to eat some soosh.



This tasty treat is made by Carolyn Tillie, she uses plastic gumball machine toys in her jewellery.

This is what playing with platinum will do to you.....

Sorry Mish ;)

Design Book Cover...

New year, New design book!

For our first B-Tech project this year we're making ourselves design books, and we get to create the cover :)

Seeing as the cover will have to be 2D, I plan on using photos I have taken and using water colours to paint sections of my photos...


The colour and texture of the coral in the above picture is very interesting, i would like to explore this using watercolours in my cover.

DUT Fashion show...

These are a couple of photos I managed to quickly snap backstage at the DUT fashion show in between the frantic wardrobe changes. One of the fashion students, Carmen Freeman, used my jewellery to accessorise her 3rd year range. The experience was definately interesting... the hectic rush of models changing, and designers quickly fixing garments made me really appreciate our calm exhibitions!

Playing with watercolours

I have never really enjoyed painting with watercolours (I'm more of an acrylic kinda gal), but todays experimenting went alright i guess...


We were taught about colours and using their complimentaries to create shadows. I painted some little shells, sweet man.

The above watercolour painting was painted by my great gran. Her watercolour skills were amazing :)

KZNSA jewellery

For the student showcases at the KZNSA gallery, we have to make pieces for the christmas season :) I'm planning on making simple (ish) pieces that can be affordable for customers, but still have my style/Btech theme.

Snazzy Photos

Photographs taken by Natasha Schoeman.

Purple Snow

I love this time of year, all the pretty Jacaranda flowers falling along my road...

Cold Cilicone moulds

we've been playing with cold moulds at tech while the workshop is being finished. And its made me think about using it in future jewellery pieces. for the moment we've just been making test moulds and tomorrow we will see how they work with polyurethane plastic...

Discussion with Brenda Ridgewell

During my discussion with Brenda i explained how i enjoy using enamelling (colour) and forging in my work. i told her how i use the sea as a reference point with my work. Basically the feedback was that i should take my own underwater photos next time I dive and use them as my reference material instead of relying on images in books. This way the pieces can be more personal?
I also need to experiment and 'play' with my existing elements, and possibly create a piece of jewellery that has limited movement. While playing with these pieces i need to document ideas by photographing them.Brenda suggested i look at an australian jewellery called Michelle Kelly, who makes organic jewellery. She focuses on mycology (the study of fungi) as her inspiration for her pieces.

Brenda Ridgewell is a jewellery lecturer at Curtin University in Perth. She creates jewellery that explores ones personal or intimate space. These are some of her pieces...

Motivation for manufacturing

Recently I have been growing more and more concerned with what's going to happen when I leave tech and have to support myself (the future...). The concern lies in being able to do what I love, while managing to generate an income that I will be able to live off of. Because of this I feel motivated to manufacture more pieces of jewellery so that I can supply galleries and shops, and in doing so, hopefully get my name/brand out there before it comes time to leave tech. If I manage to supply shops with my jewellery I will also be able to see how it sells, and depending on the outcome of this, whether there is a market for my jewellery.

Cape Glass Studio

This last week that i have been in Cape Town was amazing, and i was lucky enough to come across this beautiful glass gallery off Long Street. Such beautiful colourful sculptures (at ridiculously high prices).

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 =)

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!