These earrings were the start of a new technique in my jewellery which involved a direct manipulation in the metal; they were brought about by designing for the Anglo platinum competition with a theme of courtship rituals in South Africa.
I love African shwe-shwe fabric and wanted to use this as a design reference for the jewellery I was going to make, I chose this particular design as I was attracted to its interesting circular pattern. I then had to come up with a way of creating this design in metal. My first thought was to pierce out the pattern but it was quite a predictable way of doing it so I tried thinking of other ways in which to portray the pattern. After much thought I went to my 4th year lecturer to speak to him about my design and he showed me a technique he had discovered which was creating a perforated surface with the use of punches, it was a really interesting and different technique so I decided to use it. I roll milled the sheet metal with sandpaper to create an interesting matted texture on my metal; the purpose of this was to generate a contrast between the raised burs which were burnished and the metal below it, so the edges of the burs stood out effectively.
I really enjoyed the overall look of this technique so I decided to pursue it and experiment with patterns from sacred Geometry.
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