Grace
Grace is a
prophetic enamelled bracelet that I designed and made to be sent away to
England. This piece proved to be a great challenge as it ended up taking much
longer as anticipated due to the unplanned problems and failures, but in the
end it turned out to be a beautiful jewellery piece that taught me quite a few
life lessons.
The customer
requested an enamelled bracelet resembling ‘God’s Grace’. I started off
designing this bracelet in July of 2018 and purchased an array of enamel colours
ranging from petal pink, orchid, pastel blue, Atlantic blue and fox glove
purple that would represent ‘Grace’ here are the colours and their
explanations:
Pink (a mix
of white and red): Red representing the flesh, the healing blood of Jesus and redemption
and white representing purity and righteousness. Pink signifies the right
relationship with God and that our sins can be washed away with the blood of
Jesus.
Blue: the
healing power of God and the word of God.
Purple: (a
mix of red and blue) purple also represents royalty and kingship and it is the
colour that points to the messiah, which is Jesus. By accepting Jesus into our
lives, RED: our sins will be washed away, and BLUE: we must follow the word of
God.
Use of
Pearls:
The pearl
represents suffering, as a pearl is grown inside an oyster’s flesh. It starts
off as a piece of sand or debris that the oyster coats in nacre to smooth out the
grain’s sharp and painful edges. This parable can be used to describe God’s
plan for our lives. Sometimes we go through difficult and painful periods of
our lives that we may not understand but God uses these events to shape us and
smooth us out into something beautiful.
The use of
five enamelled elements:
The number
5 represents God’s Grace; this can be seen in the creation of human beings as
we have five fingers, five toes, five senses
Manufacturing
process:
I designed
a bracelet that consisted of five enamelled discs that had decorative windows
in which enamel was placed.
In my first
attempt, I created five copper discs that I domed and five silver discs that I domed
and pierced out. I fused the copper and silver domes using a see-through enamel
that was baked on using a torch. I went on to add enamel in the windows and
this is where I encountered my first problem. All of my enamelled domes
cracked. After doing some extensive research I concluded that I had to have a
backing enamel to prevent cracks.
My second
attempt, I prepped five more copper and silver domes. This time I added some
scrap enamel to the backs of the copper domes and Kiln fired them. I then added
clear flux on the surfaces to fuse the silver onto the copper. I then filled up
the windows with coloured enamel and baked them in the kiln at 800 degrees. When
I removed the enamels, all the colours had turned dull yellow and brown. The second
problem.
My third
attempt went similar to the second but instead of adding all the colours at
once I added them each individually, I also lowered my kiln temperature, but
the results came out the same. I completely gave up on enamelling at this point
of time. There is something wrong with my kiln’s thermostat and I will have to
get temperature cones the next time I use my kiln to get the correct
temperature.
In my fourth
final attempt, I scrapped the kiln idea and went back to torch firing where I had
more control over the temperature. I altered my silver disc design so that
there were more windows to offer more support when cooling down so that there
will be less cracking. This solution worked the best and I only had cracking on
one of my discs which I refired and the crack went away.
I assembled
the bracelet linking the enamelled domes with pearls and it ended up looking
gorgeous!
I learned
that one cannot take the easy way out because it actually wastes more time in
the end. Always do the right thing even though it involves the most effort as
it will save you time and frustration. Never give up. Always persevere as in
the end there will always be a solution.
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