Jewellery Council Collection Awards Design Competition

A Journey Through a World of Colour

Every year for the annual Jewelex Expo, the Jewellery Council of South Africa holds a competition known as the Jewellery Council Collection Awards Design Competition. For this year the theme is ' A Journey Through a World of Colour'. Jewellery designers are challenged to create a commercial pair of earrings using any material, that fulfill the theme. I think that this is a wonderful opportunity to use my special technique to oxidize  copper to form rainbow colours.

My gooseberry pods after oxidation

I recently developed a new idea to build a static flower by cutting out rows of petals and then rolling them up to form a tight bud. I discovered this technique while making my 5 flowers. Although this technique worked well for the 5 flowers project, when I made my first prototype for the 'world of colours' project, I was not happy with the result. This technique is done by rolling up a strip of petals to create a flower. I discovered that after rolling up the row of flowers, the base remained flimsy and I had to solder a solid disc onto the bottom for reinforcement. 

Five Flowers bud

Bud after pickling

I was not happy with the result because when the rolled up petals are soldered, it is difficult to go in and polish the petals so I tried avoiding soldering after rolling at all costs. To avoid this, I tried soldering a reinforcement wire to the bottom of the flower but this technique was very unsuccessful because the seam is too visible and it looks unpleasant. I decided that I will have to solder the rolled up petals onto a base for it to be strong enough. Another aspect that put me off is the gaps between the petals, I feel that they are too open. For future I will have to put the petals closer together. 

Final result

Petal row and reinforcement wire