THE THINKING BEHIND MY PROCESS

I want to talk a little about my working process. I do a bit of drawing, but for me, it definitely starts with the materials. So in this case, it’s simply the brass endcaps. I set for myself that all work from this series must contain endcaps from the bag of 1000 units that I bought. It’s a nice limitation. So here, I have polished and cut the endcaps to varying sizes.

This is where it’s most enjoyable for me. I’m using various shapes of brass as building blocks for new form.

I’m always very conscious that my work is comfortable to wear. And that it looks good from all angles. I use my phone a lot. Here is a goofy photo of me trying to decide if the 3 x endcap cluster stud is a ‘yay’ or a ‘nay’.

II think about the contemporary jewellery movement a lot. There is merit in pushing the boundaries of a material and process. And I can see how a piece of jewellery can become a vehicle for a social or political message. I GET IT. But if the wearability of  jewellery is compromised to the point of becoming uncomfortable, or even impossible to wear, then for me, it misses at least 1/2 of what jewellery is all about. The satisfaction of the maker IS very important. But I also think that the enjoyment of the wearer should not be disregarded. I believe it’s about finding the line upon which piece of jewellery can be expressive and hold intrigue, without becoming loud and obnoxious. This is my aim.

I make everything in my studio in Adelaide>:)
Here is a stack of soldered endcap pieces. These are now ready for a final clean, and will be prepared for powder coating.

And below, is a new design from last week. Still requiring some final adjustments. It might just make it into my new collection. Out next month!

Here is how…

Here are some process shots of the Double Scoop Rings. Each piece is had sawed, filed, soldered then hand polished x

Pendant

A new pendant I made a few weeks back. Brass with polyurethane.

The Humble Endcaps

This is the beginning. Industrially mass-produced raw brass endcaps. These are most commonly used to ‘cap’ loose ends of ropes or threads when making jewellery or other accessories. I wanted to use a half-dozen of these for a necklace design I made last year, so I jumped online to purchase some from a company based in China. The smallest quantity I could order was 1000 units. Which meant that I was left with 994 endcaps. Sitting in a cardboard box on the floor of my jewellery studio. I didn’t know what to do with them, but I didn’t really have a good reason to throw them away either.

Eventually an idea come to my mind… why not create an entirely new jewellery collection, using these endcaps as a starting point? I wondered about the possibilities, and ideas began to flow…

So I had some fun sketching… then playing with some colours…

I quite liked the twin-barrel ring form, so I decided to go with it. I made a wax mold which protruded from the endcaps, made silicon molds to create colourful shapes in polyurethane.

And this is just the beginning! I’ll post some more images up as the TEC project progress.