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.
