Jane Adam

This is the work of Jane Adam, she creates perforated jewellery as do I but she uses a different technique. Her perforations are quite different from mine as her patterns are very organic and irregular which she calls "counter intuitive" as she has to carefully think about where to place her punches; my patterns are very geometric, symmetrical and repetitve which, after a while creates a meditative effect. What I love about her work is that she makes each piece by hand and each piece is one of a kind.

One of a kind Mandala neckpiece

This is a neckpiece I have been working on in the past few days, frantically trying to finish before my jewellery gets examined for my B Tech portfolio.

I had created a few of these seperate Mandala elements which I was going to make into seperate pendants but I wanted to create a real exhibition 'show piece'.

I had an idea to make something like this and sketched it onto paper. After some thought I decided to go ahead and make this neckpiece which I felt was quite brave as I had a very limited amount of time to make it but I decided to just put my head down and do it. I am really glad that I did make it as I feel the outcome was really successful.

I feel that this piece epitomises my 'One of a kind' theme as each Mandala is different from the next; although some bear the same pattern there are still slight variations.

Handmade punches

These are some of the punches I have made...

To make these I cut long pieces of round tool steel to finger size with a metal saw. I then heat up the tool steel to a bright orange colour and forge it into a taper, when I have the right size or shape taper I forge the rest of the punch square which helps me to place the punch into the correct position. When the punch is square I place two vice grips relatively close to each other and create a twisting design in the middle by heating it and turning the grips in opposite directions. I then take the punch to the belt sander and slowly form the punch into the desired shape. Once this is done all that is left to do is sand, harden and temper the punches and away we go.

Baobab earrings- Vetkat regopstaan

I designed these earrings for the Vetkat Regopstaan exhibition, Vetkat is a Bushman who creates Bushman art, I was intrigued mostly by his drawings of the Baobab and came up with this design after many test pieces.
My aim for these earrings was to create them with a relaxed approach (intentional carelessness), in terms of not being too fussed about little flaws that happened during the manufacturing process. My reasoning behind this was that I imagined Vetkat, being a bushman from a very rural environment, was not tied up in the westernised Ideas of ‘perfection’ and I felt that his work had a very down to earth, unrefined appearance which I wanted to portray in my work.
I used this ‘careless’ approach by stamping the bordering pattern without measuring the position and spacing of each punch. I also used a glass brush to emerge the light silver shade from the black patina in a ‘relaxed’ fashion. After roll milling a taper on the bar for the spiral shepherds hooks, I forged it slightly with the least caution possible and then bent it into a spiral shape, also quite carelessly so it deliberately had sharp curves and kinks in the metal to mimic the zigzag effect of the Baobab's branches. Again with the shepherd’s hooks I wanted to get an overall handmade feel to match the rustic Baobab elements.
When I look at these now, though at the time I didn’t realise when I was designing them, they encompass the characteristics of a Mandala which are a centre point, a circular design and some form of symmetry. Though not a typical Mandala, these earrings still bear the essential qualities of the Mandala.

Wabi-sabi Leaf earrings

These are silver earrings inspired by Vetkat Regopstaan drawings and asperity.
I designed these earrings for the Vetkat regopstaan exhibition, Vetkat is a Bushman who creates Bushman art, I made these in copper but never used the design and came back at a later stage where I created them in silver. These earrings I feel represent the true aesthetic of Wabi-sabi, according to Wikipedia these characteristics include asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of natural processes. These earrings remind me of aging leaves, the way in which they curl into a helix spiral as they dry. As explained by Young “Wabi refers to that which is humble, simple, normal, and healthy, while sabi refers to elegant detachment and the rustic maturity that comes to something as it grows old.”

Free hand creation pattern

I made this cuff to create a flower of life pattern with a distinctive handmade look. I did this by punching the pattern free hand without a template. Due to the fact that the punches were not spaced evenly, splits were created in the metal; I decided to ‘stitch’ the splits up with thin thread-like wire. This was the same concept as the Flower of Life repetition cuff with 18ct Gold granules which I had made previously and used granules instead of wire, it was derived from the carved wooden tea bowls of Korea which were created for traditional tea drinking ceremonies. When the craftsmen carved these bowls some of them would crack during the drying process which rendered them useless for containing tea. The craftsmen would stitch the cracks using wire which gave them an artistic appeal, thus enabling them to be sold as artwork.
I brought about a handmade appearance in other pieces of my jewellery by taking a more relaxed approach in the manufacturing process which I call an ‘intentionally careless’ approach. This approach for me was less of a meditation as I had to think about the placement of my punch.

Punched flower earrings

These earrings were derived from the basic component from the flower of life pattern. These earrings are a reflection of the handmade quality which I want to achieve with my jewellery. I have created these earrings using thin silver plate, I used a different alloy of silver containing half the amount of copper, I prefer this alloy as it seems to be whiter in colour and does not tarnish as quickly. When I created these earrings I kept in mind the flaws found in ethnic jewellery so I tried not to be too careful when I stamped the pattern into the metal. Although I wanted my punching to be fairly neat and accurate I wasn't bothered by it being out of place if I happened to misplace my punch. I also drew the flower onto the metal by hand to ensure a more handmade look and feel, as you may notice each petal is slightly different. Lastly, I used a punch/stamp which I made by hand to create the petal-like edge, I was also not too careful to stamp the edge perfectly by evenly spacing the punch.

SoWheretoo?

I really want to create jewellery that is fully hand-made and really has that special hand-made essence to it. I want it to be quite visible that it has been hand-made yet I want it to still be high in quality and originality, in other words I want to stay away from flee market craft-like jewellery. My hopes and dreams are to one day build a Hand-made empire where people can buy something that is soulful and meaningful and has not been mass-produced over and over again.

The transformation

Through the lost wax casting my jewellery started taking a more organic form as I began using forms from the ocean as reference for design. Towards the end of the year I started moving away from organic jewellery as it had been over done so many times that I really wanted to do something different, I was still very interested in the mysteries of nature and what causes things to take the forms that they do. I then started researching Sacred Geometry which I found to be quite amazing, it gave me a few explanations as to the reasons nature manifests itself in certain ways.

Around the same time I found a new technique that had not been used alot which involved punching shapes through metal, this enabled me to create patterns in metal with a more 3 dimensional feel. I welcomed this technique with open arms as I love anything that is different and has not been replicated by many people, I love to be original.

I really loved the more hands-on approach and watching the transformation of the metal from start to finish, I felt as though I had a closer relationship with the metal as apposed to wax moulding, it also was much more successful in terms of manufacture than casting was.

This technique also pushed me to create my own punching tools which I have always enjoyed making. The making of the tools is just as important as the making of the jewellery, without the punches I would not have been able create all my different patterns on metal. The punching is also very repetitive especially with the Flower of Life pattern and when I begin punching it almost becomes like a mantra for meditation just as mandala's in Sacred Geometry are an aid to meditation so is the punching.

In the beginning

I started off with experimenting with spirals, I really love working with spirals and I enjoyed using wax rolling and moulding as an interesting way of creating spiral patterns.

I loved the technique and the jewellery that I made but found it to be very time consuming, the lost wax casting method was also not always successful.

During this time I researched the purposes of jewellery amongst ethnic communities as I wanted to find the original purposes of jewellery, I did this because I felt as though jewellery may have lost its true purpose in this day and age as most of it amounts to diamonds and gold, a mere show of wealth. Researching this topic brought me to find that it doesn't really matter that there is 'bling' jewellery what matters is that there are still jewellers out there making it for the right reasons