RMIT Year 1, Semester 2, Jewellery #1

Now, onto the second semester of my first year in RMIT Gold & Silversmithing…

First year, second semester, Jewellery, project #1: ‘Chained / Machinery / Movement’

I have written before about the piece that evolved from this work: the woven paper and silver pendant.

In another previous post, I’ve written about the background to this work (as it was the predecessor of many other works):
“I immediately gravitated towards weaving machinery that proliferated textile production during the age of industrialisation. I recall feeling an affinity with machinery that replaced traditionally female tasks – though later realised that weaving wasn’t necessarily a female-only domain.
In figuring out the technique to use with cloisonné wire, and to avoid wasting metal, I used finely cut paper as a mockup. My teacher at the time really liked the paper and encouraged me to explore the paper idea instead of the all-metal idea I was intent on pursuing.
It turns out I’m pretty stubborn (who knew!) and I kept on with my original idea of all metal components. However, over the month or two I was playing with this project, I tried the paper and metal combination and was won over.”

Apologies for the differently sized images – I usually like to have them similar sizes, but these were edited from photographs taken at the time of making them by an acquaintance, and after cropping they’ve all ended up different sizes.

Below is the first piece – the all metal weaving.

necklace; original image by Mark Kral; amended copyright notice: not to be reproduced without permission

… and some play-pieces using the same components … I like the antennae on the left one

woven rings; original image by Mark Kral; amended copyright notice: not to be reproduced without permission

… then the first paper and silver weave … you can see that when this photograph was taken I hadn’t yet realised that when using silk thread that it ought to be wet and ‘un-bent’ before use, instead of using it straight off the card (beginner’s mistake!)

scroll pendant; original image by Mark Kral; amended copyright notice: not to be reproduced without permission

… finally the most evolved piece of the group.

necklace; original image by Mark Kral; amended copyright notice: not to be reproduced without permission

detail of scroll pendant; original image by Mark Kral; amended copyright notice: not to be reproduced without permission

… last post on my RMIT work is RMIT Year 1, Semester 1, Silversmithing #2 …