PostAlchemy: Jewellery and Industrial Art

2011-03-15T21:01:00.004+02:00

I thought it was about time I put up some of the commercial work that I've been doing. here are three engagement rings that i made. Busy on a couple of wedding rings at the moment. Keeps me out of trouble I suppose...

What you think?

2011-03-15T20:45:00.001+02:00

Well, for the moment, here it is. New name, new background. I dont know. It might even be worse, but its different. Comments??

Time for a change!

2011-03-15T19:10:00.001+02:00

ok, im bored of the way my blog looks. I think ive out grown the image, so its time for a change!

My favourite luthier

2011-01-25T10:19:00.004+02:00

If inspiration was needed, I certainly found it here! Rick Toone makes some of the most amazing guitars I have ever seen. His way of combining different shades and finishes of woods, and the attention to detail payed to the hardware and technology, is unique. I hope that someday I might have the skill to make works of art like these.

2010-12-15T10:17:00.000+02:00

I vacuum moulded 7 layers of carbon to use as material on my cnc. I have been designing an all carbon watch, and i'll use this carbon to make the three parts of the body. Unfortunately i dont think 7 layers was enough, as it only came out 1.7mm thick. Will post some pics of the design when they look more like a watch and less like a couple of boxes on top of each other.

2010-11-24T11:31:00.001+02:00

3 prototypes of the fret board that have been made from the new mould. Needs a little work, but they getting better

2010-11-22T12:24:00.002+02:00

So, what can be said...well, hopefully im back with avengence. I think mobile blogging is the way to go, this being the first postr sent from my phone.

Any way, about the image. I've been doing allot of experimenting with carbon fiber. my plan at the mo is to build a carbon fiber guitar. I know that sounds rediculous, but its actually working...so far. I have made a mould of the fretboard, and have made a couple prototypes.

More later...

2010-05-11T10:01:00.003+02:00

Hello loyal followers.
My friend Christy-Anne has a new website for her jewellery. Its great and you should check it out. http://www.christyannejewellery.com/

Well done Christy.

"Flavours" Exhibition. Art Space Durban

2010-03-31T09:16:00.002+02:00

Some time ago I was invited to partake in the "Flavours" exhibition at Art Space Durban.
I wanted to use PC cases as show cases for my work, but I ended up spending more time on the cases than on making jewellery. So I decided that I would display the cases as the art work. I used the PC power supplies to power the fan and lights in the guitar that I built, connecting the work and entitling it "IC" meaning integrated circuit.

925 5% Pt

2010-03-31T09:11:00.003+02:00

Titanium and Plat Sterling wedding band that I have just made for a client. I have'nt made anything like this for a long time, so it was fun to do. totally under charged, but thats life I spose.

2010-03-09T19:35:00.009+02:00

I'm back! so I'm just going to put up everything that I've done since the last time I posted.

My most recent two toned Keyboard Bangle.

Solar Powered ring. Made for Artisan Gallery's "Rings" Exhibition

...There is more, but I've run out of Internet time, ( I'm going to try and do my best to get back in the habit of posting every day) so till tomorrow!

SACM!

2009-08-13T11:47:00.012+02:00

Wow it's been a busy couple of months! I haven't had much time to myself, let alone time to give to my 2 followers. So hopefully I can make up for that today. I have taken a temporary position as the technician of the Jewellery Department at the Durban University of Technology, where I was a student for the past 5 years. So my time has been fulled up with ordering, repairing and looking after students. Ive got allot of the major stuff sorted, and the systems that I've put into place seem to be working. So hopefully I will have a bit more time to blog an do some of my own work.
In February I was fortunate enough to be selected to display my work at the Design Indaba in Cape Town. During the Indaba I met a journalist named Rodain Joubert (who hopefully isn't too bumbed that I'm only putting this up now) from South African Computer Magazine, or SACM, as its known. Rodain asked me if he could do an interview for the magazine, and he wrote this
awesome article on technology in art entitled "Move Over Mona Lisa"

Thank you Rodain Joubert and the guys at SACM for the great article and the publicity that all us South African artists are looking for.

Flexi Keyboard Bangles and HandBag

2009-04-16T09:43:00.006+02:00

Hi guys. Its been a while since ive done this so i hope i havent lost all of my followers. Ive been super busy making new work and ive just started a temporary job at DUT where i studied. Its the position as the workshop technician, so im pretty much running the jewellery workshop until a replacement can be found for the old technician. So far it seems to be quite a cool job. Im doing the things in the workshop that ive wanted to do for a long time, only now they paying me for it.

Im still making my own stuff in my spare time and have been invited to be in an upcoming exhibition.

I came up with these bangles just before i went to Design Indaba in Cape Town. They are made from Flexible Computer Keyboards and have had a great response. At the moment i am making a number of them to sell in shops in Cape Town, so until i find a place in Durban, thats where theyll be.

I had this great idea while talking to some designed friends of mine, Zane and Rachel, to make a handbag from one of the keyboards. Well after some experimenting with eyelets, i got it right. Ive had some serious reactions from this, so lets hope i can sell them now.

Design Indaba 2009

2009-03-06T15:26:00.008+02:00

Hi everyone. I have just returned from the Design Indaba in Cape Town. Thank you to all the organizers and the people who made the Design Indaba the most amazing expierience of my jewellery career. Thank you to Bev Cupido who was there to make sure that me and the other 39 Emerging Creatives made it there and were able to display our work. And thank you to all who visited my stand and spoke to me.

I will be putting up my photos from Design Indaba and photos of all my new work as soon as i get the pics on my computer, so please check my blog again soon! I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Esc Here

2008-10-23T15:11:00.007+02:00

Last night I completed a new computer key brooch. It has a Perspex frame, that was cut on the Roland CNC machine, using Rhino 3D CAD. I went to Mantech Electronics
to try and buy blue flashing LED's, which they did not have. I found something even more amazing, red and blue flashing LED's.

Carbon Kevlar Trilby

2008-10-10T13:11:00.004+02:00

I made myself a Carbon Kevlar Trilby for a hat party that i went to. It came out pretty cool, needs a bit of a fix up tho. making the patten was the hardest part. The carbon kevlar has a great parrern. The weave was done purely for aesthetics, and on the reverse side, the pattern and colour is reversed. Next time i make one i need to use a heat resist resin, perhaps an epoxy. The resin that i used tends to go soft when its hot, so the hat deforms on a warm day.

Kim Kyeok: Aurora, Light as Jewellery

2008-10-09T15:53:00.007+02:00

"Jewellery expounds its value by blurring various boundaries,from the material to the immaterial, the tangible to the intangible,conveying sensuality and emotions surrounding the body." (Kim Kyeok)

I found Kim Kyeok through one of my favourite websites, geekologie.com .Kim has made a collection of jewellery using emanating LED light in a controlled pattern, to decorate the body. This is something that i've been toying with. In combination with the ideas of Leah Buechley and her e-textiles

Graffiti?

2008-10-08T21:33:00.007+02:00

On the graffiti line, is this graffiti?

Space Invaders

2008-10-08T19:42:00.006+02:00

Ive found a really awsome site called space-invaders.com . which i can't actually access right now so when i do i'll write some more...
But here's a pic which relates. I saw them in London on buildings, and thought they were really amazing way of doing graffiti.

Drilling and Joining

2008-10-08T17:55:00.003+02:00

I clamp...drill... then glued.....oh and put the dowel rods in then clamp for 8 hours to join

Plaining the wood

2008-10-08T15:21:00.006+02:00

Last night... or sometime in the weee... hour of this morning i did some plaining to flatten the faces of the wood that i am joining together. i used a combination of a rasping plane, and a belt sander.
It seems to be working, even if it is taking a while.

National Architecture Day

2008-10-06T23:37:00.003+02:00

Today was National Architecture day. So I thought i'd put up a pic of one of my favourite houses. This is the Cascade Lake house By E. Cobb Architects Inc. They have some amazing designs on their website, and I have always been influenced by their work.

Switch earrings

2008-10-01T21:58:00.008+02:00

I made the these earrings a while ago. They are made from switches that I took off the PCB from my friends HiFi. The same HiFi that the laser from the "Laser Brooch" came from.
The switches make a really cool sound when you click them, which is great as they are earrings so the sound is really close to your ear. I wonder if people will have the courage to press them when they are on someone else's ears? Ha Ha. Need to give a pair to one of my friends and find out!

"Laser Brooch"

Neck swap! and part scavenge

2008-09-30T11:48:00.003+02:00

These are two guitars that belong to a friend of mine. The neck of the one on the left has worped so the plan is to take the neck from the one on the right and put it on the one on the left. Then hopefully my friend will let me use a couple of the left over parts for my guitar.

2008-09-30T00:30:00.002+02:00

Here's a pic of the spilt wood. Mirroring the pattern for strength

The start

2008-09-29T23:38:00.005+02:00

This is a pic of the mahogany that I am using to build my guitar.
I have two pieces that are each just over a meter long. The idea is to split the wood down the center and open it up to mirror the pattern. This
will give it streagnth and stop it from worping, as the grain will curve in opposite directions.

The guitar

2008-09-28T16:16:00.004+02:00

The past two weeks have been hectic! Between working on my research and planing out the guitar that i am building, i have'nt had much time to share it all with you.

Something that i started on this last week is the design for an electric guitar. I decided that its something i've always wanted to do, and i could use my jewellery skills to make the components ("you gotta have skills") Ha Ha

These are some of the drawings that i have been playing with. I have got hold of a piece of mahogany which i am using for the major part of the body. Part of the bottom corner will be made from a perspex box construction, so that the components can be visible, and so i can equip it with LED's. I want to give it matt white finish, i'm sort of going for that ipod look. This week i'll be glueing the body together, so i'll be sure to put up picks of that.

Fashionable Technology

2008-09-13T00:33:00.016+02:00

In my last post, I mentioned the book Fashionable Technology. Well when I was In London, I went to the Tate Modern. Apart from seeing the most amazing art, I visited the book shop. After walking to one side of the shop, the first book i picked up, happened to be the most important book I have ever seen! Fashionable Technology by Sabine Seymour.

This book has helped me so much in my research into using technology in jewellery. The author wanted to convey her concept on the amalgamation of technology and fashion.

"The theoretical discourse in this book intends to provide an initiation to fashionable technology. It addresses the major concepts and provides a detailed bibliography that points to additional publications. The list of materials, blogs, institutes and events affords a starting point for further exploration in the field."

Seymour,S. 2008. Fashionable Technology.

New York: Springer-Verlag/Wien

One of the most inspirational people that I have found in this book, relating to what I am doing, is Leah Buechley. She is making and exploring the very things that i would like to do. Her Beaded LED Bracelets are totally amazing and the ideas that she has about e-textiles, and soft circuits are incredible.
Leah Buechley is a post doctoral researcher in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she works with the Craft Technology Group. Her research explores the intersection of computational and physical media, focusing on computational textiles or electronic textiles (e-textiles) - soft, flexible, fabric-based computers.

I've been wanting to equip a hoodie with a LED display, and have just come across this page on Leah Buechley's site on how to make your own wearable LED display. So this will help me allot, as I only have a basic understanding of electronics, and have been relying on friends who are computer science students, to help me out.

Cyber Dog

2008-09-12T22:45:00.018+02:00

During the July Holidays, I traveled around England. I had a great time, and saw some really amazing things. But there were two things that totally made my trip. The one was getting the book Fashionable Technology, which I will speak about in the next post, and the second was going to a shop in Camden Town called Cyber Dog.

Its A shop that sells rave clothing and accessories, and my stuff would fit in here perfectly! The clothing all glows under UV lights, or has scrolling dot matrix images or has some sort of computer based PC board pattern. Seriously amazing stuff! The shop itself is like another world, and unlike any place Ive ever been. Strobes, UV lights, and hard trance music playing, and the shop assistance all fit the part, with their florescent hair and massive boots. Add in a couple of beers and I could have had a party right there! and apparently that's what they do. they clear out the clothing and have parties!

How much better could it be? I loved Cyber Dog and cant wait to go back.

Dont you wish the moon was always heart shaped!

2008-09-11T22:48:00.005+02:00

Just something random...
I took this photo a while ago, and must have shook the camera a bit, which blurred the shape of the moon a bit, but made it into an awesome heart shape

Link to Platinum Switch Brooch Video

2008-09-11T01:04:00.011+02:00

I've done It! After much resezrch, tests, trials, and allot of burnt out SMD's. Ive finally mannaged to make a working example of my switch computer key brooch. I mannaged to get an electronic latching switch from a safety band, that runners and cyclists wear at night. The switch has three positions; on, off, and flashing. So now when you press the key into the frame, you have those options. This is something that ive been working on for some time now, and to have it finally working is great. This model I made for the Anglo Plat compoitition. The entire visible part is platinum, weighing 10.4grams.
The next task is to find out how to reproduce the switch, as cutting up safety bands is going to start getting heavy on my pocket, and quite wastefull, wich is an isue that i am trying to address by recycling computer components to make jewellery.

The Belt Mount Egokast Player

2008-09-09T13:17:00.007+02:00

So after having this great idea, and doing the drawings, I have found a company who is one step ahead of me. The Belt Mount Egokast Player, is a personal media player. Its pretty much the idea i was talking about. its nice to know that there is common thought in the world, and that im not the only one out here...
Na...its not realy. you like to think that you are being original, and its so hard to do that. Marcel Duchamp's Mona Lisa with a Moustache, springs to mind.

LCD Screen Belt Buckel

2008-09-06T01:29:00.004+02:00

Had such an awsome idea for a belt to add to my collection of ...Techno Freak belts.

A belt with an LCD screen as the phocal point, with flash, or memory card potential. So that you can upload videos, and play them on the belt screen, while you party it up!

I thought that the best place to get the parts from would be an old mobile phone. They have colour screens, video playing potential, and memory card slots. But then it was like...well that would just be like attaching a cell phone to your pants. But maybe that is the answer after all ...?...

What ever I do its going to take some pretty hectic engineering, and a large amount of help from a computer engineer.

...ja, computer engineers seem to be in shot suply round here.

Fan Belt complete

2008-09-03T17:08:00.009+02:00

This is my completed Fan Belt. Made from the case fan from a computer. The belt part are the safety bands that i have been cannibalising for their circuitry, to use in my switch brooches. I have used a 9volt battery to power the fan, which works really well. I also tried a 12volt battery for a remote. It worked well, but the 9v was easier to connect. I wore it to the "Sex and Candy" party at Burn night club, and got a great reception. Having the lights flashing on the belt in the dark club was amazing!
I'll put up a video soon when i can actualy work out how to upload them properly.

Lift Lights- Japanese/80's techno feel

2008-08-29T11:59:00.005+02:00

I took this picture, fits in well with all my ideas/ thoughts/ concepts. liking the texture of the un-light button. as for the light up button it might as well be one of my brooches.

Name Badge

2008-08-29T11:34:00.004+02:00

I found this .... i forgot i had a name.....
its an old piece that I made, it was my first 'computer key ' thought. which had more to do with found objects. But ended up sparking off the revolution....!!!!

Titanium and Platinum Sterling Spin ring /Kind of looks like a bearing

2008-08-28T20:52:00.009+02:00

Just been making a customers order of a titanium spin ring that will be pierced out......I'm so organised for once that I've got my friend Mich to write this post for me..... Oh yeah....go team!!!
So the spinning part of the ring is pierced titanium, and the rest is a new alloy called platinum Sterling. The Platinum Sterling is 925 silver, with an alloy of 5% platinum. This alloy is pretty amazing. It has a better colour than normal silver and is extremely malleable.

The ring is not finished yet. I till have to do the piercing, and assemble it properly, But i thought i should take a photo, because when i pre-fitted it like this, it looked like a ball bearing. I thought this was quite cool as I used to use bearings in my work, and made a few pieces that resembled barrings.

Safety Bands for Circuits

2008-08-21T16:46:00.007+02:00

These are the safety bands that I used for thier circuits. The top picture shows how the switch is contained in the band. The bands are such a cool florecent colour that I would like to use them for something a bit later on.

Switch brooch process

2008-08-21T15:47:00.008+02:00

After making the platinum switch brooch there are a couple of thing that i need to refine. The springing action in the platinum one worked, but if it is attached to a jacket and pressing against the body, it might be more difficult to work. So this has to be addressed. so I am increasing the area of the spring in the brooch to obtain this ability. I am also placing a thin perspex rim around the key to try to help reflect the light better.
In the foreground of this first photo is the electronic latching switch or circuitry that I am putting into the brooch to make it work. I had to cut it down to fit into the key and re solder some of the terminals. I am trying to find out how to make these circuits, but no one is able to tell me what IC (integrated Circuit) is used, or what alternative to use. So for the moment I'm going to have to continue cannibalising safety bands for cyclists.
We spoke today in our class discussion about the process in which we come up with a new idea. I realised that i never finish a piece and then start to try think of a new design. I am always working on more than one thing at a time, and when I get to a point in a piece when I get stuck, usually on a technical aspect, I move on to one of the other pieces. When I come up with a way to sort out the problem of the first piece, I go back to it.

Platinum switch brooch

2008-08-08T16:24:00.008+02:00

I've done it! after much research, tests, trials, and allot of burnt SMD's ive finally mannaged to make a working example of my switch computer key brooch. I mannaged to get an electronic latching switch from a safety band, that runners and cyclists wear at night. The switch has three positions; on, off, and flashing. So now when you press the key into the frame, you have those options. This is something that ive been working on for some time now, and to have it finally working is great. This model I made for the Anglo Plat compoitition. The entire visible part is platinum, weighing 10.4grams.
The next task is to find out how to reproduce the switch, as cutting up safety bands is going to start getting heavy on my pocket, and quite wastefull, wich is an isue that i am trying to address by recycling computer components to make jewellery.

Our Full Studio

2008-07-31T19:37:00.002+02:00

Today was the first time, since I've been in this studio that all the benches have been full at the same time. We're all busy doing the Anglo Plat compitition. There's only a couple of days left to finnish our pieces, so everyone is working hard.

Computer Fan with Cover

2008-07-17T16:22:00.010+02:00

This is the computer fan belt project, with the CNC cut cover plate attached to the front. The next step is to attach the batteries. The fan runs on 12v, so 4, 3v batteries would be great. Unfortunately, when connecting them, it does not work properly. The lights come on dim, and the fan wants to turn, but just doesn't. I have been in England for the past three weeks, met up with a friend of mine, Anthony Murry, who develops Blue Tooth software for mobile phone head sets, for the company CSR. Speaking to him, we realised that the problem was that the fan needs a large amount of current to run.The small 3v watch batteries that i was using, give me the volts, but not enough current. So the solution is to use larger batteries, that add up to 12v.

This photo shows how the lights and fan should run. I plugged it into my PC to see how it would work.
I used cap screws to attach the cover plate to the fan. I got the screws from Denkit models in Springfield Park. They were designed for a model aeroplane.

http://www.csr.com/

Micro Expo

2008-06-20T10:52:00.007+02:00

This Tuesday we had to put up a small expo at tec. It was very helpful to lay my work out and see what i had in the way of work. I also got some great ideas of the end of year expo, such as the use of the PC board pattern as an aesthetic, like i have used it here. The patterns in the four ground of the photo, are actually the internal workings of a keyboard. Each dot relates to a key on the computer keyboard. An idea that I had, was to print the patter on the wall of the gallery where i have my exhibition. Perhaps in ink that can only be seen under UV light. Then I could have a UV light scrolling across the wall, illuminating the hidden pattern. I would like to do this as an instillation, and turn the display into the final piece of the collection.

Computer Fan Belt

2008-06-16T01:07:00.014+02:00

This is the computer case fan that i chose to use. It is a clear fan, with four electric blue LED's built in.
I wanted to make a cover plate for the fan, to protect the fan, (and your fingers)
The PC board pattern, seemed like the obvious option for a pattern. I decided to cut the cover on the Roland CNC machiene, as I would get a perfect finnish. Unfortunately the first time that I tried to cut it, I used thin pollycarbonate instead of perspex. That was a mistake because after six or so hours of cutting, the pollycarbonate heated from the friction, to the ixtent that it melted. I than recut it in perspex. Perspex has a slightly higher melting point than pollycarbonate, so I had no trouble with it melting.

Computer fan belt buckle

2008-06-12T00:24:00.008+02:00

After the success of the keyboard belt, i was looking at some old components and decided that a computer fan belt buckle would be amazing! Of late i have been intrigued by florescent and UV colours, so thought that one of those UV fans that you get for the comp cases with clear sides would be great. Unfortunately it proved more difficult to find that i thought. For the moment i have managed to find a clear fan, that has four LEDs (in that amazing blue that i love) that light up when the fan is plugged in.

I realised that I need to put cover plates on the front and back of the fan, in order not to get your self court in in. So i am designing clear perspex covers in Rhino, which use the PC board pattern as the cut outs for air flow. These are some quick drawings from my journal, to show the basic concept.

The fan runs on twelve volts, so I'm going to have to use four of the three volt batteries that i put in the keyboard belt.

Computer component belt buckle

2008-05-17T02:00:00.011+02:00

In the future...all belts will have combination locks and flashing lights.

Just messing around. this is a belt i made for the "Back to the Future" party at the beach club. Got a realy good response to it. People liked the idea, and the quirkeyness of it. Took some pepole a wile to realise that it was actually a computer key board.

Badge with lights off and LED on

2008-05-12T01:30:00.001+02:00

This is sort of what it should look like when the lights are off.

The plan

2008-04-29T19:56:00.001+02:00

So the plan was to put all this stuff inside this computer key...
easier said than done.

My first draft of the circuit, worked, but was just that bit to big. I removed the excess wire and tightened it up a bit. Eventually getting it to fit. The only problem now, is that the whole key is now taken up by circuit and there is no area to attach the frame. Another thing is that the batteries have run out and i soldered them on, so I'll have to sort that out.

I've got some cool ideas to fix the bugs. Just need to do them.

Brooches for the technological age

2008-04-19T18:11:00.003+02:00

These brooches are made from old computer keyboard keys. I made them at the end of '07 for an exhibition at Bean Bag Bohemia.
I really enjoy this design, there is just one thing i have noticed. When i wear them, people automaticly try to press them, as you would if it was on a normal keyboard. At the same time i was thinking about incorporating LED's into the brooches. I then realised that i had to put these two ideas together. So the idea was to create a circuit, within the key, so that when you press the key, the LED would turn on.

Lazer eye brooch

2008-04-18T13:56:00.004+02:00

This brooch is made from the laser of a mini hifi. I did not want to effect the look of the laser by adding too much silver to it. I wanted it to stand alone to show of the engineered beauty of the piece. So I made a two piece frame, which is screwed and riveted into the back of the piece.

My intention

2008-04-04T19:58:00.000+02:00

I am a jewellery designer in my fifth year of studying. I am currently doing a batchelors degree of technology in Jewellery design and manufacture. At the same time I am doing some part time work for David Batchelor Jewellery Design. I am gaining great experience and sharpening my skills working for David Batchelor. For my degree I am researching modern materials and techniques. This has lead me down some interesting paths. Trying to find materials not commonly used in jewellery and more often used in industrial processes and heavy industry, and basically any "high tech" medium. I have worked in titanium, steel, poly carbonate, carbon fiber, kevlar, gilding metal, mokume' gane, as well as the standard precious metals like gold, silver and platinum. I have also used techniques like laser and water jet cutting and CNC milling. I am currently using computer components, and electrical circuits in my work.
I am exploring man as a machine, and how we have become reliant on technology for our civilizations survival