Phases of a Flower

Phases of a Flower

 ‘Phases of a Flower’ is a set of five individual pieces each with their own symbolic meaning. Together, these individual pieces form one installation piece that becomes the metaphor of my study period at DUT. The installation consists of a set of five sculptural pieces in oxidized copper and sterling silver that realistically resemble 'Magrietjie' flowers in different phases of a life cycle from a bud to a wilting flower. I have made these pieces to mimic nature in a realistic way by incorporating the element of movement into the last three flowers. Movement has allowed this installation to become very tactile and sensory-stimulating to the senses of sight and sound. This installation consists of five flowers:

Bud, Transitioning, Fresh, Mature and Wilting

For this installation, the aim was to realistically recreate a set of five ‘Magrietjie’ flowers in different phases. It is crucial for the flowers to have a realistic or lifelike appearance for these reasons:

• ·         The viewer has to be able to visibly recognize that this installation resembles flowers in different phases based on their subjective meaning.
• ·         I have to re-create the tactile feeling of a flower in my fingertips to resemble the flowers that I played with as a young child.
• ·         The flowers have to capture the metaphor of my five year study period at The Durban University of Technology. 

van der Linden, A (2019) Phases of a flower, Copper and sterling silver flower sculptures.

Phases of a Flower Evaluation

Evaluation

After evaluating all the aspect of this Installation, I have come to the conclusion that Phases of a flower is a successful series of pieces.

• The installation realistically resembles a series of ‘Magrietjie’ Flowers
• The petals on last three flowers in the installation series are able to move successfully
• A metaphor of my five year study period at DUT is captured through this installation

 The two pictures show the design and the finished pieces of Phases of a Flower

van der Linden, A (2019) Phases of a flower, Drawings

van der Linden, A (2019) Phases of a flower, Copper and sterling silver flower sculptures.

Wilting Flower

Wilting Flower

I have created the metal flower in this phase to resemble a flower that is wilting. Its petals are frail and with one touch they drop to the ground. I have created this flower to represent the end phase Btech. The wilting flower represents the end of my study period at DUT. The dying flower, however, does not represent death or failure, but rather a new phase of life. After a flower has dropped its petals, it forms seeds that are sewn to grow as new plants with flowers. Therefore the wilting flower forms a bittersweet symbol representing the start of a new chapter in life. After my Btech year, I will be starting my own business which will involve new challenges. I have also incorporated movement into this piece, where the flower petals drop off once the flower is touched. This will bring about an element of surprise and sensual experience for the viewer.

van der Linden, A (2019) Wilting, Copper and sterling silver flower sculpture.

Mature Flower

Mature Flower

The mature flower’s petals have fully extended to their maximum potential to fully reveal the petals and the stamen. This phase of the flower represents the period of my life during my Btech in the maturity of my hand skills. However, a flower in nature in this phase has reached full maturity which means it is time for it to start producing seeds. This allows the flower to become a representative to my realization that I will need to start planning my future beyond my studies.

van der Linden, A (2019) Mature, Copper and sterling silver flower sculpture.

Flower Movement

Movement of flowers

I have included the element of movement in the last three pieces so that there is a strong tactile element present when the flowers are picked up and touched by a viewer. The gentle feeling of the metal flower between my fingers allows me to think back to when I was a young girl and I used to pick flowers from the garden and play with their petals, bringing about a nostalgic feeling. I hope that the viewers of my piece will have a similar nostalgic experience when they engage with my pieces.

van der Linden, A (2019) Phases of a flower, Copper and sterling silver flower sculptures.

Fresh

Fresh 

In this phase of a daisy flower, the petals have separated from the centre to slightly reveal its centermost point which is the stamen. The flower is crisp and fresh, not yet open to its maximum. This flower represents the end of the third year phase of my life. In this phase, I am more confident as a person and as a jeweller. I have grown and matured as a person and my jewellery making skills have largely developed from my first and second years of study, at this point I am almost due to receive my diploma in Jewellery Design and Manufacture. The fully developed flower has just opened enough to reveal its inside which represents me as an almost qualified jeweller that is ready to take the next step to ‘grow’ by obtaining my Bachelors. 

van der Linden, A (2019) Fresh, Copper and sterling silver flower sculpture.

Transitioning

Transitioning 

In this phase, the bud is visibly larger than the previous picture and it is opening-up slightly and revealing more of its internal structures. This represents my growth as a person as well as the growth of my skills. I used the bud in this phase as a symbol to represent my phase of 'warming up' to my new environment in my first year at DUT. I think of the sun's rays hitting the petals of a daisy, giving it the strength to open up and reveal its inside. One can see that some of the petals are starting to open up; this represents me becoming more confident in my new environment as I grow more secure. In this phase, I am still inexperienced as a jeweller; this is represented through the closed petals in the centre of the design which are concealing the innermost part of the flower. The open petals on the perimeter of the bud represent my growing knowledge, security and experience.

van der Linden, A (2019) Transitioning, Copper and sterling silver flower sculpture.

Bud

Bud

The bud is shut tight with all the petals facing inward to conceal the stamen, It is also smaller than the rest of the flowers in the installation. The jewellery piece representing the tight bud represents me in my first year starting off as a jewellery design student at DUT. At this time, everything was still new to me, a new town, new faces, a new living environment away from my friends and family members. I use the bud as a symbol to express my state of mind and emotions that I experienced during this phase of my life. The words that the tight young bud represents include doubtfulness, vulnerable, young, insecure, inexperienced, hesitant. Not only do these words represent the emotions that I experienced in my first year, but also my level of skills as a jewellery designer. In this phase, I am completely inexperienced as a jewellery designer. The closed up bud represents my knowledge of jewellery design, at this stage, I have not yet learned the necessary skills to make jewellery and I am unaware of the true meaning of jewellery and the understanding thereof.

van der Linden, A (2019) Bud, Copper and sterling silver flower sculpture.

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

Construction of a Flower

Building the Base

A difficult task was thinking about a way to build the bases or sepals of the flowers, which is the part of the flower that is connected to the stem and acts as a house for the petals. The first idea that came to my mind was creating a half circle domed piece of copper sheet metal (0.3mm thick) made from a flat circle that gets punched in a doming punch. After thinking about it for a while, I had the idea of punching lines into the dome before doming the circle (the punched lines also help to give the shape a slight dome). I also decided to pre-cut and punch the sepal flaps before doming. I imagined it to end up looking like a perfect half sphere with lines punched onto the surface. Here are the images of the sepal shapes before being domed properly in a doming punch:

Punched circle with flat flaps to hold the flower

After I finished punching all those lines into the circles, It was time to dome them to give them more of a spherical shape. I annealed each circle very well and I simply placed them in the largest dome in my set and I gently pushed down to reduce the diameter. This is where magic happened. somehow, the lines that I punched on the surface acted like fold lines, which allowed the metal to fold over itself beautifully creating the most beautifully realistic texture to the sepals. Here are some images of the sepal circles after being pressed down in the doming punch:

the doming punch caused the punch lines to fold over themselves causing beautiful ridges to form 

Motifs: Flowers

Motifs

Flowers

I have always been drawn to flowers as I grew up with a garden abundant with many different types of flowering plants. One type of flower that I am fascinated by most is the Daisy flower which in Afrikaans, my home language, is called the ‘Magrietjie’. I find it intriguing how daisies open up into a magnificent flower from a tight closed up bud and how some daisies close up after sunset. I have drawn inspiration from this dazzling flower to create a series of jewellery items that realistically depict the Magrietjie flower in different stages of growth with moving petals.

'Magrietjie' with bee - Marissa Enslin

 For hundreds of years, jewellers and artists have been making use of imagery of flowers in their art. Some of the most iconic fabric and wallpaper designs of the nineteenth century were produced by William Morris who incorporated floral motifs into many of his works. One of his most Iconic prints is known as ‘The Strawberry Thief’ which is a print that depicts images of thrushes, strawberry fruits and flowers and various other types of flowers and greenery. This narrative piece tells a story “based on the thrushes that would steal strawberries from the kitchen in his country home at Kelmscott Manner, and was therefore imbued with nostalgic sentiment”. Victoria Walker, a jeweller artist from Cornwall (I will be discussing Walker’s style and techniques more in depth in chapter 2) also makes use of flowers in her designs. She draws inspiration from many of the wild flowers and seedpods that grow in the fields of Cornwall near her home. 

William Morris - Strawberry Thief Print 

Dancing Flowers

Here are the flower tops in sterling silver and rose gold plated silver, ready to be attached to the sepals and stems that will be constructed out of blackened copper.

Newly opened flower

 The newly open flower has firm petals that still stick up slightly.

Fully opened flower

 The fully open flower is in full bloom and glory, the petals have a wider range of movement than the freshly opened bud.

Wilting Flower

The wilting flower's petals have started sagging, with one touch they fall to the ground. (Check out this blog to see it in action)

Flowers Mechanisms

I have started constructing the flower mechanisms to create the three kinetic flowers with fully movable parts. To create the moving hinge systems, the flower bases (the part where the petals are slotted into) need to be cut out large enough to have 16 x 2mm long slots and small enough to fit into a bud to hold it in place. On these bases, tiny slots need to be cut so that the petal can be slided into the opening. each petal has a 2mm x 10mm long tongue that is rolled up once it has been slotted into place, this prevents the petal from slipping out, but also allows the petal to move about in a wide range of movement depending on how tight the tongue has been rolled up. To decorate the flower base, I have punched tiny beads into a second plate, which I have soldered onto the base to resemble the center part of the flower carpels. After tumbling the bases, I rose gold plated them to create a contrast to the whiteness of the sterling silver petals.

Construction of the slots for the petals

Construction of the Carpels to be placed on top of the base

'Magrietjies' Petals in the Making

In the process of the making of my next series of pieces, Thoughts in Flowers, in addition to the buds, I will also be making flowers that resemble daisies in the open and wilting stages of the flowers.

Daisy Bud Opening

Fully Open Daisy

In these stages, when looking at an actual flower, the petals are not static, they have some kinetic properties where they are able to dance in the wind or move about when touched. A person feels tempted to rub the petals across one's fingers because of the soft feeling that the petals create, a tactile temptation. I want to create this same tactile desire in the open flower pieces of Thoughts in Flowers. I WANT my audience to pick up and play with my pieces in the same way that I played with the flowers in my hands as a little girl. 

To create this piece, I have pierced out a few loose petals from a 0.3mm sheet of sterling silver, I then shaped each petal by punching a groove down the center using a flat punch. these petals will then be connected to a disc with tiny grooves as in my Movement Jewellery post to create tiny hinge like systems. this will allow the petals to move about when manipulated. 

'Magrietjies' Petals in the Making

Magrietjie

The Magrietjie is the Afrikaans name for the Marguerite Daisy, a common  daisy-like flowering plant, that comes in many different colours. It is also a plant that has a personal significance to me as it made up a part of my childhood. My mum had a 'Magrietjie' bush growing in the garden. Playing in the garden, I always played with these flowers and made my own 'perfume' from them.

The two images below show the flower in the stage of the bud. The petals in the buds are packed tightly together to create an almost condensed ball. The petals are completely static and rarely move in the wind or to the gentle tough of a human hand. To create this effect in metal, I have come up with a way to create a roll of petals, made by cutting out petals in a sheet or strip, that are connected at the bottom, and then rolling them up to create a cluster of petals that are static.

Tight Daisy Bud

Daisy bud opening slightly

Below are a few images of the construction of the 'tight buds' which will be static in my series of  five pieces, Thoughts in Flowers. I thought of this fantastic idea after I saw a youtube video of Tastemade where they used strips of sliced apple halves to create a rolled up tart resembling a rose. I thought that this could be a brilliant concept for this piece. I cut out strips of petals on a thin piece of sterling silver, roughly 0.3mm and I shaped the petals with my flat punch to create a groove in the centre of each petal. I then rolled this structure up to create the structure in the third image. This resembles the bud in the image above, left

Bud Strip Being Rolled up

Bud Strip Being rolled up

Rolled up bud after a pickle bath

Thoughts in Flowers

For the past few months I have been burning to create more floral pieces that is similar to a prototype piece that I made last year that involves petals that move when manipulated. I thought that It would make an excellent concept for the PlatAfrica 2019 competition and I drew up an initial design sketch for this idea that I had for a daisy flower Brooch, that have moving petals. I wanted to create a flower jewellery piece that shows the growth and transition from bud, to blossom and then the wilting of the petals to symbolize the way that I experience an artistic Idea.

I have come up with a new concept idea that grew from the above design. It involves a series of five pieces that represent daisy flowers in different phases of growth.

The design sketch of my next series of pieces, Thoughts in Flowers. this piece will be made into metal. 

from Dust to Dust

Vegetable Garden

When spring time began in late September, I cleared an overgrown sunny patch in the back of our yard to plant a few vegetable plants. I uprooted bushes and shrubs and levelled out the ground with the compost that I have been making for the past few years.

 I planted squash, marrows, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, chilli, bell pepper and lettuce and towards the end of October my garden was in full bloom and some crops had even produced little vegetables and as November began, My marrow plant had quadrupled in size producing marrows that were as large as my forearms and it had many little bees pollinating its sun yellow flowers. My lettuce and spinach crops had also flourished in growth and I was able to have a weekly supply of fresh leaves to use in salads. My garden produced abundantly.

However, summer surprised us with showers of rain that completely drenched the soil and the humidity that came along with it wreaked havoc on my crops bringing about a plague that destroyed my creation. Death came to visit. Overnight, a grey powdery mildew had formed on the leaves of my marrow plant, despite my attempt in saving my plant with sprinkles of sulphur; the plant succumbed to the curse.

Once again I was reminded of the fragility of life and how nature always conquers man. After Adam ate from the tree of life, the earth became cursed with death as the eyes of man opened after having a taste of sin. Today we are continuously reminded of this. There is no success without hard work, there is no control over nature, there is no control over Gods will. From the dust that we came from, to the dust we will return.

Genesis 3 verses 17-19 “ the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.

Flowers and fruits

Fresh Produce

death

Floral Motifs

Floral Motifs

I have realized that I have been working with flowers and floral motives much more than just "nature" so a more suitable title for my Btech would be: Jewellery inspired by Flowers. Recently, I revisited an old flower ring prototype that I made and I felt that I can develop it further so I made multiple flowers in different sizes and in different stages of growth so I can have some fun and play with my "elements". I am still unsure of how i am going to turn these flowers into pieces of jewellery but the answer will come through exploration.