Displaying

I have stripped the chaise longue down of its top cover and revealed a suprisingly in-tact brown faux leather; I love the fact it is worn and decoloured in places as it adds to its authenticity and age. I need to buy some upholstery tacks and place them in, preferably brass, ready to take into the Jewellery School next week

A friend who from Germany doing the long-distance MA with us found these beautiful boxes on the street for me and brought two of them back in her luggage, very kind of her. The boxes come complete with age stains-perfect! What a love finish the tassle makes.

I thought they would be especially useful for displaying some of my pieces perhaps as they have built in cutlery racks.

Skeletons of the Final Collection

 I now have all the frontal pieces hand pierced out for the final collection, with a few backings in place...these are now ready for the backings to be made and to be polished and plated, patinated and sprayed:

The oval collection

The rectangular collection

The round collection

The whole brooch collection

The round & rectangular collection

The brooches & statement piece

I have been electroforming some new fabrics this week to see what they will turn out like and if they are suitable for gold embroidering on. These ones are prepared with acrylic sealant ready to be painted with conductive paint...We shall await their outcome. Although I am having some slight problems with the tank at the moment and trying to work out why it isn't conducting the copper properly.

This weekend will be filled up with piercing out this heap of steel sheet into ornate patterns that co-ordinate to make up a large statement piece. I was using 2mm thick steel which was really tough, but have managed to find slightly thinner sheet (1.5mm) This is strong enough to be ornately pierced yet easy enough for my blade to run through.

This week in the School of Jewellery we have been planning out our exhibition floor plan and placing 35 collections in situ, using both the glass topped atrium and exhibition hall, it is all becoming more real....ready for September's MAdness in the Method exhibition!

Backings

I am now at the stage of putting the pieces together and adding finishing touches before plating such as the backings which I believe need to be just as ornate as the front of the pieces; this creates layers within the pieces and a sense of depth and decoration

Goldplating & Steel

Time is getting short and the work load more intense for the last few weeks...I have been laboriously hand piercing out steel recently for a large neck piece which involves partial goldplating. I was very impressed with the finish of the plating on the sandblasted surface

Women's Shoulder Enhancements

This piece is the early stages of work in progress of the 'hybrid' 'statement' piece; "Women's shoulder enhancements"

At this stage I am decided what electroformed fabric looks best domed within the 'frames' and how to go about embroidering gold metal thread onto the surface as well as deciding the most suitable chain to exist with the piece designed as an exhibition art statement