A sneaky peek at some designs I`ve just submitted to the annual Goldsmith`s Craft and Design Council Competition.
What better way to spend the beginning of january - snowed in and generally quite a flat month, than to get inspired and conjure up some new designs for the year ahead. I`ve been working hard over the past few weeks, honing my cad skills to get these designs out and I only made it by the skin of my teeth to the post office to meet the deadline.
For quite a while now I`ve had designs/techniques and processes brewing at the back of my mind, so it`s been great to sit down and get these ideas solidified. Over the course of this year I hope to bring elements of these designs into my actcual practice - so watch this space!
For this first design I submitted, the brief was to design a sumptous bag for an evening extravaganza using precious materials and colour. This immediately excited me as I love working with colour and rich, decorative patterns which I thought would fit the bill. So basically the bag is made from silver and the formed back and front plates have an extruded decorative paisley pattern which would be created by rapid proro typing from a mesh model I`ve created, then the frilly edges would be photo etched. Certain areas have been highlighted by goldplating and the whole piece is brough alive by various graduating shades of purple and some dazzling sapphires.
And the actual presentation board:
The second brief was to design a suite of contemporary jewellery using 18ct gold and precious stones. So the following collection would follow a similar process to the bag - the form of the pieces would be created from mesh models I`ve designed by rapid protyping and then cast into whatever material, then enamelled black and the gold patterned areas achieved by the process of Keum - Boo. The diamonds would then be added. A collection including earrings, a brooch and necklace.
