Wednesday, 24 October 2018

End of Year Btech Reflective Report Draft



Description
At the beginning of this year, I started with the first year of my Btech. I started off not knowing in what direction to go into although I had an understanding that I wanted to use nature as an inspiration for my work. I did not know how I was going to do this so I started looking at what other jewellers were doing to gather a bit of interest and I started exploring the natural environment around me where I took leaves out of my garden and I tried recreating their vein patterns using the technique of roll milling. I I discovered that I was intrigued by texture and it lead to me exploring etching and I dabbled in incorporating my hand sketches into my work by etching my hand drawn designs inspired by nature onto metal . I was in a phase where I enjoyed the concept of the combination of drawings and jewellery so I went on to explore drawing with pencil onto white enamel surfaces. At this point in time, I decided to revert back to my initial concept of working with textured leaves and I took it further by combining movement into my work
Interpretation
When I started with my Btech, the most challenging aspect for me was figuring out what I wanted to make and research for my final Btech report. At the time I knew that I was interested in nature and that I was going to use nature and botanical forms as inspiration for my work. However, I was not sure exactly how I was going to bring these aspects into my work. This is when I started looking at simple aspects such as leaves and I made many variations of leaves in different shapes using techniques such as roll milling. after I made a whole batch of leaves to experiment and play with, I started putting the elements together in arrangements that resembled flowers. I realized that when you do not know how to start a project, you must start with a simple shape and replicate it in a different way each time until you come up with something that catches your eye. This way of thinking was very significant to me because I learned that you cannot just jump into the deep end and start making masterpieces, you have to start with one small aspect and build upon it.   
Another meaningful realization that I encountered in my first year journey was realizing that it is fine to take a few steps back and develop an old idea or project that you steered away from in the past. This occurred when I was working on etching my hand drawn sketches on metal, I decided to go back to using petals or leaf like motifs in my work when I was designing a platinum ring for the Plat Africa 2018 competition. I however developed on my previous idea and incorporated movement into my work which was previously not present in my work.  
Movement was an important aspect that I brought into my work and it arose from the idea of adding a metaphorical aspect or meaning behind my work. Previously my work had no deeper meaning and I realized if I express a metaphor or story through my work then my work becomes more meaningful and allows an audience to feel emotion when viewing my jewellery. I wanted to show the metaphor of growth and this lead to me exploring ways in which I can express a flower growing from a bud into a blossom
To be continued…
Outcome
Having experienced the first year of my Btech I now feel that I have some sort of a direction that I am moving in and that I am able to build on the foundation that I have made in terms of the type of jewellery that I am making. I however still am not at a point where I can come up with a suitable title or subtitle to categorize my work. I have learned that you will never reach a conclusion when it comes to your Btech research but that one thing always leads to the next and that you al always developing and evolving your style. I however, do not yet feel confident enough to make complete sets of jewellery pieces as I feel like I still need to experiment a bit more but as a next step, I need to carry on making many prototypes and developing on them and I need to narrow down my interests to find a suitable title and subtitle for my work.

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