Outsourced Casting

During last weeks meeting, Chris suggested that I should get going with the production of my jewellery. Even though some of the designs are already done on Rhino, I still need to physically produce them, but due to my casting not up and ready yet, I was unable to get anything done. I have sent 5 of my rings to be cast by Metcon and I should be expecting them by next week.

Plat Africa 2015 – Complete

Artist Statement:

According to Hindu scriptures, a typical Indian woman is meant to be adorned with 11 pieces of jewellery. Although this age old tradition is not observed by most. In this day and age it is no longer practical or feasible to be wearing so many pieces of jewellery at once. Hence the engagement ring still remains the most important and the focal point of all matrimonial jewellery.

My design was inspired by the Paisley shape, which in my opinion is a timeless fusion symbol which culminates the East with the West which still remains a relevant fashion symbol after all these years.  My thought process for using the Paisley shape as part of my design extends to wanting to create a ring that portrayed the merging of ‘two lines’ coming together as one. As this talks to the harmonious culmination of the couples love and commitment to each other.

According to Hindu beliefs, gold is symbolic of luck, prosperity and wealth. In an attempt to diversify my ring whilst trying to create a modern piece of Jewellery, I opted to retain traditional aspects to my ring by using a bit of gold in the design as well as an attempt to use fine ‘filigree work ‘ but modernized the overall look of it by predominantly using Platinum as the preferred metal.

Plat Africa – Cast take 2

I received the new cast today. It is far better than the previous casting, however the wirework on either side didn’t cast as well as I had hoped it would. With there not being much time left before the deadline, I just have to make it work.

Plat Africa – Failed Cast

There seems to be this constant problem with casting my Plat Africa pieces, last year and this year too. I received my casting today and it was horrible. The casters made a mistake on their side and finished the piece off, however they messed up whilst finishing. The round settings were oval and missing claws as well as the metal being extremely thin in certain places.

Plat Africa - Rhino Design

Below is a screenshot of my design for the Plat Africa competition. I have incorporated the wire work from the shining lights pieces (as I feel it creates the illusion of filigree) as well as using the ‘split’ of the shank ( 2 parts becoming 1). I have sent the file in to be casted and should have it by the end of this week.

Plat Africa – Designs

Having participated in Plat Africa for 2 years prior, I noticed that when they talk about commercially viable, they actually mean commercial with a little flair. For this year’s competition, I decided to manufacture an engagement ring incorporating the paisley design with elements from my shining lights work.

Plat Africa Brief

The theme for the upcoming Plat Africa jewellery competition is ‘Indian Bridal Jewellery’. During our B-tech meeting, Chris advised me to do a ‘’follow through’’ of my shining lights competition. With this in mind, I set off designing but still trying to retain an ‘Indian flare’ to my work.

I created an inspiration board on Pinterest, gathering references on Indian culture/couture and noticed a fair amount of Paisley designs in most of the works. Having thought about it, the Paisley has always been a timeless fusion fashion symbol culminating the east and the west. With this in mind I set off designing my piece.