Mariambibi Khan: May 2015

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Lace Flower Ring

The aim of my first assignment is to create a high end contemporary piece. The techniques and workmanship put into a strip of metal bobbin lace, fall as contemporary. Therefore, as advised by my supervisor and co-supervisor, the use of the hydrangea’s are unnecessary. I was advised to focus on the simple 3 dimensional forms the lace could transform into instead of the interpretation of the hydrangea itself. The bobbin lace technique allows for the representation of the hydrangea sufficiently, therefore a literal interpretation is unnecessary. However, instead of setting it aside completely, I decided to incorporate it in the high end commercial piece, which will be discussed in my next post.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Ring Concept 1. Pencil Sketch.

I played with the rounded wire frame and manipulated the lace matrix to form a donut shape, however I turned the ends out at the center, to cover up the harsh line of the frame. In its own form it looked like a flower.

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1. Fine Silver

Once this shape was created, it held enough complexity to stand as a simple ring, however I felt that it was too simple, so I incorporate the two together in one ring.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Ring Concept 2. Pencil Sketch.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Ring Concept 3. Pencil Sketch.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Ring Concept 4. Pencil Sketch.

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1 & 2 with metal hydrangea. Fine Silver

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1 & 2 in ring form. Fine Silver

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1 & 2 in ring form on hand. Fine Silver

The shank will be twisted to incorporate the feel of lace wire and to eliminate the harsh lines of a normal shank. I have soldered the lace flower to the shank by soldering. I added a wire connecting the flower to the shank for extra support.

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1 & 2 in ring form. Fine Silver

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace 1 & 2 in ring form with wire support. Fine Silver

Once everything was solder together to form the complete ring, I polished the shank and left the lace white.

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace ring. Fine Silver

Below are the Rhino Cad screenshots of the ring. Timothy Bull assisted in showing me how to create the ring on CAD. I do not have the rendering tool therefore I could not render my ring. I have added the image of Timothy Bull's CAD Rendering.

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace. CAD

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Ring Shank. CAD

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace ring. CAD

Mariambibi Khan. 2015. Flower lace ring. CAD Rendering

Timothy Bull. 2015. Flower lace ring render 1. Rhino CAD

Timothy Bull. 2015. Flower lace ring render 2. Rhino CAD

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Silver Hydrangea

Once I discovered how the lace can be manipulated to form many hollow exciting shapes it was time to move to the solid pieces which would represent the Hydrangea in itself. I began drawing the idea of stacking the flowers to create a large neck pieces. However, the drawing lost the elements of the natural form of the Hydrangea.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Shapes. Pencil.

I decided to create the pieces in metal by forging the shape and curves of the hydrangea, so that I could understand the shape better and then, perhaps, be able to represent it in my drawings. I used sterling silver to create the flowers so that the shape will be strong enough to hold itself compared to the fine silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Metal Shape. Sterling Silver.

Once I pierced and shaped the metal to represent a hydrangea, it was too harsh and solid against the lace. I then decided to incorporate the veins present in the hydrangea by piercing out lines which would lighten the piece both physically and aesthetically.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Metal Shape Piercing. Sterling Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Metal Shape Pierced. Sterling Silver.

Once I placed the flowers onto the lace, it was a complimenting relationship, the end result emphasizes the beauty of the hydrangea when alive and dead. I began creating different variations to put together and form into a combined jewellery piece.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Metal Shape Pierced with lace. Sterling Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Hydrangea Metal Shape Pierced Components with Lace. Sterling Silver.

Playing with Lace

The Design process proved to be difficult for me. I seemed to have many ideas as to how I would love for the end result of my pieces to look, with the forms, shapes and contrasts present in the lace itself, however transferring it to paper seemed to lose the idea. I began drawing ideas of what I would like for my jewellery to represent, which is the boldness of the central veins with the delicateness of the inner veins.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Concepts 1. Pencil.

The idea transformed into a bracelet/bangle which contrasts the delicateness of the wrist. It also seemed to entwine with the idea of lace gloves, but with a twist.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Concepts 2. Pencil.

Towards the end of the process I began to lose the natural shape and form of the hydrangea itself, which was initially to capture the beauty while it was alive as well as when it died. The design began looking flat and familiar to a piece which I created when I was in my BTech 2012.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Concepts 3. Pencil.

Mariambibi Khan, 2014. BTech 2014. Sterling silver & Brass. Chain-mail.

I went back to the lace samples which I had made and realized its ability to be manipulated into any shape or form. I could bend it, create waves and stretch it. This led to the idea of creating a round lace motif which I could perhaps form a domed round structure.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Concepts 4. Pencil.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Round Lace 1. Fine Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Round Lace 2. Fine Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Round Lace 4. Fine Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Round Lace 3. Fine Silver.

The finished piece looked better than I expected, so much so that it could be left the way it is, which is in fact beautiful. But I will focus on playing around with this shape at a later stage. With the first attempt at creating a circular lace motif, I was worried that there will be a joining line to close the circle off. I had camouflaged the line by integrating it into the piece. The second attempt was more successful because the threads were interlinked to have no start and end point visible.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Lace Ball 1. Fine Silver.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Lace Ball 2. Fine Silver.

After successfully creating the circular lace motif I began playing around with the lace by bending and shaping it as well as to see its limitations. I formed a hollow ball and then pushed the edges inward creating a do-nut shaped basket.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Lace Ball 3. Fine Silver.

Monday 4 May 2015

Discovering Bobbin Lace

Once the decision to study my BA Hons in Design was made, I had to investigate which areas in jewellery were not well informed or those topics that required attention in the designing of jewellery. I was looking to a technique that was not used often in jewellery but was still seen as a reference of beauty.

http://patterncurator.org/2014/11/25/iron-maiden/

In the year 2012, I focused my BTech on 'Haute' Jewellery and the design process that constituted it in comparison with 'Haute Couture'. I had thought of researching this topic further in order to distinguish the lack of progress and standard to Ramp jewellery when compared to Haute Couture by dissecting the process of ramp fashion to ready to wear fashion and transforming the process to a jewellery context. The basis to proceed in this study was to look at the trends for 2016 in order to design my jewellery with similar motifs and visual representations of the trends forecasted.

http://patterncurator.org/2015/01/05/major-lazer/

What I found is the increased use of laser prints which I immediately wanted to incorporate in my jewellery. The more I thought of the idea of lace jewellery the more I wanted to know more. The history, the progress, the links in critical theories etc. I also wondered why was lace so intriguing and it has the idea of a sexual connotation behind it and how the binary opposites of concealing yet revealing is linked to it. The idea of covering oneself while allowing certain areas to be visible allows for interest and the curiosity to wanting to see more and know more. I then decided that I would focus on Gender – Feminism and sexuality playing on the ideas of lace jewellery. How it has the ability to be a symbol of purity and at the same time falls under temptation and seduction.

Mariambibi Khan, 2014. Bobbin Lace Sample 1 & 2. Crochet Cotton.

I concentrated on how I could incorporate lace as a jewellery technique. I attempted investigating whether there has been attempts on jewellery made with a lace technique. I had found one book on bobbin lace jewellery, however did not have access to it. This is where I searched for bobbin lace and learned the basic stitch, which I then made a lace strip with crochet cotton (image above). One can see that the lace made with cotton is soft and flimsy however after learning the basic technique of bobbin lace I started visualizing pieces of jewellery with a lace motif. The delicateness of the piece as well as discovering whether it could be done with metal. There has been forms of fine metal wire work such as weaving, chain mail and filigree however none that represented the technique of lace to its core.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Bobbin Lace Sample 3. Fine Silver

Above is the sample made in metal. There were some problems I experienced with using metal such as keeping the tension the same as well as breakage of the wire. Annealing the metal while working on the lace is not possible which does create more of a problem. The lace in metal provides a delicate workable presence which can allow for manipulation during the design process. Once I knew that metal lace can be produced, with a few kinks to smooth out, I began my design process.

Mariambibi Khan, 2015. Bobbin Lace Sample 4. Fine Silver

Friday 1 May 2015

Inspiration

https://www.weconnectfashion.com/articles/graphics-s-s-2016-mens-and-womens-trend-forecast

http://shoaibnzm2.blogspot.com/2012/05/hortensia-flowers.html

Inspiration can be a difficult process on its own. There are so many options to choose from as well as whether it will last you the duration of the design process. I am generally fascinated with flowers, their shape, organic lines, textures and forms as a whole. At first I thought of concentrating on the cherry blossom but eventually went away from it. I started looking for flowers that linked to the skeletal structure when dried to give the form of lace and fall into the concept of concealing and revealing. This is when I found hydrangeas and when dried or decayed they form a skeletal structure.

http://www.beautifulflowerpictures.com/blog/big-leaf-hydrangeas-hydrangea-macrophylla-regula/

http://www.interior-design-world.com/faded-hydra-1.html

I loved the contrasting effects of lush and form of the hydrangea when alive, however the dried or decayed one has a different beauty as well. It allows for a variety of positive and negative contrasting elements.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Bigleaf_Hydrangea_Hydrangea_macrophylla_%27Tokyo_Delight%27_Five_2317px.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bigleaf_Hydrangea_Hydrangea_macrophylla_'Tokyo_Delight'_Flowers_3008px.jpg

I began drawing these flowers in order to familiarize myself with the shapes and forms present. I am mainly focusing on using pencils as my medium. These were my beginning inspiration drawings.