Let's talk about...Jewellery

I'm alive! Yes, yes, I know it was long, but I do have a good reason for not writing - I found jewellery design job in a company, and currently I'm still undergoing training. So far I have 2 jobs, and commission I'm working on, so it's all about juggling the workload. This will be a very brief post, just a small sneak peak of commission I'm working on.

My brother is getting married, and I was asked to make wedding rings. His fiancee had very specific design in mind, and I ended up carving it in blue wax. I got the castings back yesterday - they are in yellow 14ct gold. I'll need to clean up sprues as soon as I have some time (today is a job day for me). I'll talk about it in more detail, when I have some more time.

I'm back!!! I know, I know - I should have written a short notice to explain why I was gone for so long. But as a matter of fact, I was really busy over the past 2 months. I got a job! Not exactly what I wanted, because it's customer service on a zero-hour contract basis, but it's a start so that I can gain experience while looking for jewellery designer jobs. I was completing a lot of online training to start work as soon as possible, and I completely forgot about the blog. Then I remembered about jewellery design competition deadline, which I wanted to take part in, and with a deadline tomorrow, so I was doing a lot of design development. Then I got some intel about jewellery designing job and was calling back and forth to organize interview (I have it this Tuesday), so overall - crazy time. I finally told myself, that Sunday latest, I need to prepare something and update.
So here I am.

Now that this is done with, the competition!


 Fairtrade Gold Design Awards is a competition organized by Ingle&Rhode. The competition is "open to UK-based jewellery students, apprentices, and those at the start of their jewellery careers, these awards will showcase the talents of emerging jewellery designers, while raising awareness of Fairtrade gold amongst the people who are the future of our industry."

Designs are to be either engagement ring, wedding ring or a set of both.

"Designs may incorporate yellow, white or rose gold (maximum of 10g of fine gold or 13.3g of 18ct gold) and a maximum of 0.5ct of round brilliant cut white diamonds (in total, whether all set in one ring or shared across two rings). Diamonds should not be smaller than 0.8mm diameter (approximately 0.003ct)."

Winning design will be manufactured in Fairtrade gold through the process of casting.


 So as you can see a lot of things to consider. When creating initial moodboard I instantly wrote down the keyword - Fairtrade. It instantly made me think about the source of gold, mines, and earth gold was taken from. There is this link between honouring nature through environmental protection and supporting Fairtrade. The key for the ring design was natural landforms, mountain terrain, rock/crystal formations. I wanted something simple and slightly modern.











 As you can see I got to the part of making models - I originally planned to make a set of wedding and engagement ring, and for them to be quite nicely fitted, engagement ring with 3 stones. But I looked back at my previous designs, and I felt that I wasn't fully satisfied with my design - it wasn't as creative as some of the older sketches.



 I wanted something more unique but at the same time I struggled with visualising it on paper (I usually don't - I can imagine designs from different perspectives), so it was pure torture.  I took a step back. In the meanwhile, I was given a commission (I will talk about it in more detail another time) and made few small samples in blue wax. That gave me an idea to try carving shoulders of the ring - relief that was giving me so much trouble. So I made a tiny model in wax and drew design based on it.

We are at the end of the Christmas Wonderland journey!
Today's post will focus on the final step of Clara's visit in magical Land of the Sweets from Nutcracker -meeting Sugar Plum Fairy. In the story, she governs over the Land of Sweets in absence of the Nutcracker Prince with her Cavalier.
This ultimate symbol of a ballerina, dressed in lovely tutu sweeps through the stage accompanied to some of the most beautiful music created by Tchaikovsky - romantic yet full of melancholy Pas de Deux and ethereal Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

It's interesting to note that in the original book the story is based on, there is no Sugar Plum Fairy. Nutcracker Prince has sisters that Clara meets. There is also a story within a story, explaining how he became a Nutcracker in the first place - he was saving Princess Pirlipat cursed with ugly form, but after an accident became cursed himself. Pirlipat rejected him, after which he was stuck in the form of Nutcracker.
None of it seems a good explanation for Sugar Plum - who personalises everything good and sweet. It is my personal opinion that she is meant to be a representation of Clara from the future.
Well, enough of that - let's get to designing!

I wanted to design something extra special for Sugar Plum, so I've designed a set of pendant and earrings.