Chapter 2 conclusion

 During this chapter, I learnt about several jewellers who all utilize castings but each translate into different outcomes. Although these jewellers produce different styles of work each one played a significant part in researching for my body of work. 

Louise Partain and Nic Bladen both cast from organic objects similarly to the castings I produced last year. Naomi Tracz chain is the closest reference I could find to my organic chain, Tracz spin-off pieces from her chain inspired me to create my own spin-offs using my links. Nicole Ringgold inspired me to work sculpturally, her pieces look cast but they are made by fusing and melting scrap pieces of metal.

Michelle Pujol's work is also quite sculptural and I had a semi-structured interview with her to get input about my work. I summarized Michelle Pujol's responses from the semi-structured interview I conducted using my research sub-questions. I provided my own response that reflects how her responses were applied to or differ from my own work. 

Chapter 2 Introduction

 The chapter examines the work of other jewellers that refer to the same theme, organic, which is the foundation of my body of work. I focus on jewellers who utilize casting as it is a skill I have been developing and used in the three collections I produced. I used the other jeweller's websites as a reference for designing my own. The semi-structured interview I conducted with Michelle Pujol helped me to delimit the possibilities of casting and the theme organic.

Naomi Tracz

 Naomi Tracz is a UK based jeweller that takes inspiration from the natural world around her and, "turn[s] them into jewels with simple, clean lines and a minimal aesthetic," (Tracz, 2021). I was intrigued by Tracz's Dalia chain as it is very similar to my own organic chain. Our work is similar in that the links are cast (see Figure 2) and we both use marquise-shaped links (see Figure 1). The main difference is Tracz's links are much thicker, making them look heavier.

Figure 1-Tracz, N.,(2020). Dalia chain.

 

Figure 2- Tracz, N.,(2020). Cast links.

M. Pujol Interview- Marketing

 I had a semi-structured interview with Michelle Pujol and got her views on my research sub-questions.

"Which marketing platforms are most appropriate for selling organic jewellery?" 

Michelle's response

She had some initial suggestions on doing mini-exhibitions she felt I needed to generate multiple collections. She also suggested I approach magazines to do small articles on my work to get my name out. Another helpful suggestion was that I should generate an explanation/story behind each piece can help it sell.

She suggested that once I have a few collections then to start thinking about setting up an online presence. She explained how there are two ways about doing this either with my own website or with an Etsy store. A useful piece of advice I received was to do the online set-up myself as paying someone to do it as it can get expensive to pay someone every time I want to add a product to the online store. 

Pujol explained the difference between a website and an Etsy store, a website can easily be set up online using Wix or WordPress but usually only access local target markets. Whereas Etsy is internationally known but is used by many crafters which means more competition.

My Response

There are not as many galleries in Durban that will rent space out to students for free so my version of mini-exhibitions to test the market would be when I display my work at the I Heart Market. The market has been closed so because I have experience with Wix I explored using it to set up my website. My focus is not on being internationally known at this point in time so I did not even look into an Etsy store.

M. Pujol Interview- Mass Production

  On Monday I had an informal interview with Michelle Pujol and got her views on my research sub-questions.

"Do you use casting or any mass production methods?"

Michelles's response

Michelle doesn't cast as she prefers making up each piece individually. She did explain that if she did have the facilities to cast she would cast elements that she could manipulate after casting to achieve her desired outcome. Therefore reducing the manufacturing time of her pieces. She feels that casting whole pieces diminish the personality of the piece.

My Response

I have the facilities to utilize lost wax casting so it is a technique I find myself using frequently. I agree with Michelle about casting elements instead of whole pieces. The difference is I manipulate the elements both while they are in wax and after they have been cast.

M. Pujol Interview- Design

 On Monday I had an informal interview with Michelle Pujol and got her views on my research sub-questions.

"How do you develop your designs?"

Michelle's respone

Michelle explained how starts with many ideas but that she sets parameters to focus her personal design briefs. She finds references which she then uses to ask herself," how can the reference be incorporated into a function or a non-functional piece."

She also gave me a few suggestions to apply to my own work. The tips included taking photos whilst manufacturing as other ideas arise. This is so the original design can be completed and the other designs can be returned to a later stage. Unfinished pieces should only be given a limited shelf life. She explained how she kept her unfinished pieces visible so that they can inspire new designs but also so that they are a reminder that they need to be completed. When manufacturing becomes overwhelming taking a step back is a good way to get a new perspective.

My Response

I struggled to find a starting point for my designs so Michelle's tips were very useful. I looked at my plant castings from last year and decided that their shelf life was up. I did not follow her suggestion about finishing the original design. Whilst I worked on my sunflower earpiece I realized I spent a lot of time working on perfecting the size of the sunflower that it was more substantial for me to produce a collection with the sunflowers I cast.

Louise Partain

 Louise Partain (Partain, n.d.)is a UK based jeweller that uses casting to create her organic pieces. Some of her pieces are cast directly from organic objects and other pieces are moulded in wax. This is basically exactly what I have been experimenting with between last year and this year.

I struggled to find out more information about Partain's work as her website is under construction so I have been finding bits and pieces out from her Instagram. This is one of the reasons why I think a website is important.

Partain, L.,(2020). Wax tree.

Partain, L.,(2018). Plant 'tree'.

Michelle Pujol

Michelle Pujol is a jewellery designer and fine artist that is influenced by the natural world around her. Pujol divides her work into "complex sculptural " pieces for galleries and diffused ranges(Pujol.2021) for her commercial audience.

From what I have observed from Pujol's website and Instagram her jewellery echos her still life floral paintings. Pujol uses her Instagram to display the photos she takes for references, her paintings and jewellery. I also noticed that all of Pujol's paintings and jewellery are sold through her website.

M. Pujol., (2021). Screenshot of Instagram page. 

M. Pujol., (2021). Screenshot of website. 

Nicole Ringgold

 Nicole Ringgold is a silversmith that is inspired by plants and objects she finds while hiking. The botanical jewellery may look cast or electroformed but it is all hand made by melting scraps of silver together. "[Ringgold's] intention is not to replicate the plants, but to recreate them with silver with as much detail as possible[; the] goal with every piece is to make the metal appear alive"(Ringgold, n.d.)

Her work interests me as she makes large sculptural pieces, I was under the impression that she made sculptures and that's how the objects stayed but looking at her website I see she uses her sculptures to make wearable pieces. I always worry about the weight of my pieces while making them I get stuck on the thought of would it sell. Ringgold's work has inspired me to take a second look at my castings from last year I didn't use them as I thought they were too large. My castings are tiny compared to Ringgold's sculptures.

Ringgold, N., (2021). Silver sunflower.

Nic Bladen

 Nic Bladen (n.d.) is an artist that creates life-size sculpture castings of plants. His jewellery is a result of his lost casting experiments that lead him to his life-size sculptures. No two pieces are the same as he does not make moulds of his work, he casts from the natural object itself.

Nic Bladen's sculptures are very intricate and some of them are made without harming the plant itself. An example of this would be his Boscia Albitrunca (Bladen. 2015) sculpture, which is 3m x 4.2m x 1.6m, that was made by making a mould of the tree and casting a single cast from the mould. Only some of the branches were cast from live branches but it was ensured that these would not kill the tree.

I have seen many pages on Instagram selling castings that are made from cast plants like Burn out Castings, Silversmith nursery and Cactus and flora castings. They sell their castings for other jewellers to use and are based overseas, whereas Nic Bladen uses his castings to make sculptures and jewellery. He is also a South African artist which makes his work more relatable to me as some of the plants used in his work are indigenous to Soth Africa.

Bladen.N. (2015). Boscia Albitrunca. Bronze sculpture with steel base