Final Contrast piece

Doing research before getting into manufacturing is one of the best ways to find expected result without any challenges. Making a piece with that contrasts, became demanding of much attention on the interpretation of the contrast on the piece. My pendant is made in silver and beads. 

There is more than one thing in this piece that contrasts making the peace relevant to the topic of the task. The sizes of the beads are not equal, some are big in width while some are higher in height. the colours used in the beading may seem to be blue and white only which is false, we also have other bluish colours that do not can be identified on a close view. 

The pendant which is the focal point of the piece, contrasts from the shapes designed on the front of it to the beads added on the sides and beneath the designs. It is a variation of geometric shapes. Making contrast alive on my piece was not that challenging.

Final contrast piece

From starting with the casting process to joining the pendant with the bead necklace took me four days including the filling process. The whole project was manageable and relevant. 

Final contrast piece

 

Manufacturing Contrast

Firstly my final piece was to be made in Brass before I decided to share my idea with one of our seniors and she advised me to go with silver. For the chain, I was so confused. did not know how am I going to do it. Secondly I now decided to do a casted piece. 

One of our lecturers got my idea and where it came from and she decided to also add from what I came up with and we made one idea of a silver casted pendant with a chain made with beads. The process of making the chain was the easiest since I have been around and familiar with beads. The worst process was the casing stage.

The kilns were acting up, just on the days I had to invest and cast. Fortunately, one of our lecturer managed to find a solution and my piece was finally casted and ready for the following stage of filling and getting the chain together with its Pendant.

Chain in beads

Prototype

Designing Contrast

Then I went to the designing stage, this stage was one of the challenging. The whole process of it requires a lot of attention since this is where the final piece will be imagined before it is manufactured. Doing a few sketches that will give me a balanced idea that will not give me a hard challenge when the manufactured stage is reached.

That sketching process helped me a lot to think of how might the mediums also portray the theme contrast on its own. On the first step of the drawing and designing stage, having our lecturer on our side as someone to guide us helped the all of us and it gave us a way of understanding how we may want to show contrast on our designs.

 

Before we started manufacturing, I had planned to do my piece in Brass however in the process the idea changes into a different medium. 

Contrast

The starting point was where we were ought to gather everything we could possibly know or find on the theme Contrast, and use the things you find interesting about it and create a mind map that will give direction or group ideas into a way which will make it easier to choose relevant ones for the topic.

For me Contrast can be highly interpreted with visual aspects like shapes, colours etc. However it can be interpreted with different things. My piece would be under influence of the two things I mentioned above that I stated to be highly interpreting Contrast.

Introduction to Contrast

Contrast is the contradiction in luminance or colour that makes an object (or its representation in an image or display) distinguishable. In visual perception of the real world, contrast is determined by the difference in the colour and brightness of the object and other objects within the same field of view.

Contrasting image

For the whole Task we are researching, designing and manufacturing a contrasting piece of jewellery. The whole process will be divided into two stages of submissions firstly the research and drawings and secondly the manufactured prototype and the final piece.

We all had to come up with our own different ideas on how each can show contrast on a piece of jewellery with various things, some can be colour, some can be shapes or some it can be figurative aspects on the piece

Ashanti Bracelet

 The Ashanti task was challenging and required enough attention, in order to achieve the expected outcome. The Bracelet is made in brass. It is all related or made under the influence of the Ashanti gold weights by the Akan people.

The piece consist of two Spiral charms, one Chameleon charm and one proverb interpretation charm hanging on the jump rings bracelet. These charms create a variation of focal points in the bracelet as each charm offers it explanation and all placed in a position of holding its attention from the viewer. 

In class we all had to make similar jump rings chain only charms to be different, this was because that after we had submitted and displayed our work, the bracelets were supposed to be taken to WITZ and be displayed as one huge chain. 

Below are pictures of  a single chain of mine and one of all class bracelets.

My Ashanti Bracelet

Whole Class Bracelets

Manufacturing Ashanti Gold weights

The manufacturing process is split into two parts, casting the models- Chameleon, Spirals and making a ring chain to make the whole pieces into one jewellery or bracelet. The charms were made separately and the chain was also made separately.

The chain was also made in brass with jump rings. These jump rings were ought to be flat, either tapered hammered or filed. I started with finishing the models before starting with the chain as I estimated that it will require much attention on casting the models, so it was wise to finish with it first before the chain.

After casting the proverb piece and chameleon, I then started with my chain and finished it in a day. Then the following day I soldered the rings with the models and put it on acid for a day. I did the filling and the bracelet was done.

Below are picture of the casting process ( Wax Tree)

Wax Tree before Casting

   

Designing Ashanti

 Designing was a crucial and a important step since this is where you knew or gathered ideas and figuring out if it is possible to come out with required outcome. Designing the chameleon was less difficult than the process of designing the proverb. 

We already had references from the Ashanti gold weights for the chameleon model unlike for the proverb model, it was supposed to be considered by our own imaginations. We started off with doing sketch drawings, then started the process of making wax. Drawing the chameleon design was easy and unlike making it. 

Doing drawings for the proverb did not offer much challenge so as creating a model that interprets my proverb of choice in wax.

Below are pictures of chameleon and proverb design drawings. 

Ashanti and Proverb Facts

Chameleon drawing

Proverb Drawings and Ideas

Personal Interpretation

The process insist of two models to be manufactured beside the spirals. There is a Chameleon and a Proverb interpreted in a piece of jewellery. For the Chameleon we already had ideas and references from the original chameleon pieces by the Akan people. For the personal proverb we were ought to choose from our own proverbs of choice and interpret it. 

'I remember very clearly someone saying, "Don't shake hands with the cactus, and I thought, 'Well, why not? What could possibly go wrong? Shaking hands is a friendly gesture.' - Benedict Camberbatch

This quote above came into my head and I decided to go with the Zulu proverb 'Izandla ziyagezana (A person is a person because of another person), meaning we all need each other to archive greatness. I decided to make two hands shaking. 

Pictures below are of my proverb piece in wax and brass form.

Proverb Model in wax.

Proverb Model in Brass.

Introduction to Ashanti

In this project, the whole process is related or the theme of the task is on the Ashanti Gold weights from the 1400-1720 AD era. These gold weights by the west African tribes were used as a measuring system of currency in matters related trades. The Akan people made these gold weights in brass, meticulously carved. 

For the project we were assigned to research on Ashanti gold weights and do pins on Pinterest of images of the Ashanti gold weights. Thereafter, We were supposed to design and make two spirals and one modeled proverb. The proverb was supposed to be of our own personal choice proverbs portrayed in a piece of  jewelry.

Ashanti Charmeleon gold weight

Shell Belle

 This is the final stage of my shell belle project, after the glazing. The shell did come out well, but the confusion is that all the coloors comes out different from how they were before the firing. At this stage there was not much work left for us to do, we all collected, work and took photos of what was needed for other assessments. 

Glazed Ceramic shells.

The final glazed pieces were for another module and they were successfully submitted and met the requirements. The picture above are my whole shells including rings, pendants and pinch pots. The project was enjoyable and helped us with a technique for a living.