Postcards

 

Illustrated Postcards from Nora Kovats

I just received these postcards from Nora Kovats. I love the watercolour and ink techniques used in the illustrations all of the plants are painted in watercolour but only the important ones in the foreground have ink outlines so they stand out from the background. 

I aspire to work more like this where there is less of an end result in mind at the start and just trust the process as I work, which is the feeling I get from these postcards. 

Setting for enamels

I wanted to set my two enamel pieces but didn't know how to go about it until I saw this photo by  Kovats, she uses a piece of metal between her two enamel pieces that has claws in either direction to secure both sides to one middle piece, as seen in figure 1. I thought I would try to set my enamels in the same way but I knew it was going to be difficult as putting too much pressure on enamel can crack it so once the one side is set setting the other side would be a challenge.

Figure 1-  Kovats, N., (2020) Enamel pendant.

I used the same pattern the was used on the domes on the setting plate, but I reduced it and used different sections. I reduced the pattern as the gaps on the domes were large so it would add some contrast also because I did not want the plate to become too flimsy and bends as I set. For the claws, I cut slits bent half up and half down then shaped and sanded them as seen in figure 3. 

Figure 2- Bowes, K., (2020). Pierced pattern on the setting

.

Figure 3- Bowes, K., (2020). Claws. separated 

Photo collage

I was inspired by Nora Kovat to use an actual reference to inspire my enamelling colour choices. I want to choose colour schemes that exist in nature. I am going to do some watercolour drawings but for the meantime, I created some digital photo collages. I used photos I have taken of my garden and other places; I want to print my collages and place them at my bench to influence my work. My original plan was to do some collages from magazines and some drawings. Due to the lockdown, I couldn't collect any from friends and family as I don't have any magazines at home.

I downloaded the photos and uploaded them into an app called Artflow. Each image had its own layer and I moved layer by layer erasing the backgrounds of each picture. This was time-consuming and somewhat frustrating to try not accidentally erase the edges of the image. I then played with placement and layering the images to see which image needed to overlap other images. Once the individual images were layered exactly to my liking I merged them into one image. When I was about to save the first collage I accidentally made the collage a negative which changed all the colours their opposite colour also making it neon. The changes made the collage interesting especially the second collage it made the plants look like deep-sea neon coral. I saved both collages as normal images and as negatives.

First collage

First collage negative

Second collage

Second collage negative

Nora Kovats

Nora Kovats is a contemporary jewellery designer and illustrator from South Africa that is now based in Berlin. She works with silver and vitreous enamel.  Nora Kovats uses botanical imagery in her pieces. She refers to her garden as an inspiration even though her mythical garden in her jewellery may not always reflect her physical garden. She uses the botanical illustrations of her garden as a surface to sieve enamels over while also using her illustrations to inspire the colours she uses in her enamelling process.

 Kovats.N.(n.d.) enamelling over illustrations

Her pieces are interesting as they are simple pierced pieces of metal that have been enamelled. Some of the pieces are domed and strung with beads or stones. She has different variations of the same techniques which are due to the fact that she chooses to create multiple pieces of jewellery at the same time. She states that this is because "it’s a creative process in several disciplines simultaneously."(Kovats,2020)

Kovats.N. (2017-18).Deep Sea Garden Monsters.Neckpiece, enamel and beads