Viewing entries in the Behind The Scenes category
Stages Of Polish
Polishing methods for jewellery vary far and wide. From the most traditional hand-polishers using countless grades of sandpaper to give their pieces shine, to machines that tumble metal around with little steel balls called “shot”; ask any jeweller how they polish and you will get many different responses. Dedicated manufacturing jewellers will likely have industrial machines at their disposal with powerful motors that spin giant mops covered in cutting compounds. I utilise a similar method to a much smaller scale with my trusty little Dremel and miniature mops and brushes.
Whilst preparing a ring for polishing I decided to snap a few shots of the process. Due to the heavily textured finish on this ring, not all areas take to polishing the same way – if it did, there’d be no texture left. The desired result is areas that are intensely shiny juxtaposed with flatter areas to give the texture depth and dimension.
Safety goggles are a must because little bits of mop and metal can go flying right into your eyes.
Tripoli is the first stage compound. I use two different parts for this, a cotton mesh and this lovely goat hair brush my friend David Parker gave to me. For some reason my tripoli, which is traditional known as the “brown” compound turns blue when I use it.
The second stage is red rouge with a much softer mop head because the cut of the rouge is finer. This last stage gives the metal a mirror-like finish.
After polishing my hands are filthy. The brushes ruin my manicures but the rest of the compounds on my hands wash off easily with dishwashing detergent and warm water. The ring also needs to be washed because it is covered in excess compound and they are greasy.
Underneath the messy compound residue the metal shines wherever there is a smooth area.
Nymphae Ring
I posted pictures of this ring a little while back as my entry to the AIF Visual Response, but never really talked about it as a design.
The VR theme, Woman, was more difficult to interpret into jewellery design than I’d initially anticipated. I knew I wanted to craft a ring, so I began thinking about the theme and the way I could design a ring in sterling silver using my limited self-taught manufacturing skills that would be both structurally sound and cater to the concept intelligently.
I had a plethora of ideas that included interconnected abstractions to mimic embryonic growth, as well as minimalist arrangements focusing on the circular shape of the ring as a fundamental tribute to breasts. When it became apparent that my initial manufacturing option using a casting process was no longer feasible given the time constraints, I decided to use the opportunity to hand-forge my own creation.
With only rudimentary metal-smith skills I found the process to be quite challenging – especially since I was crafting it the day before it was due. To keep the piece clean I opted to work with a design that didn’t require soldering, which ultimately benefited my final piece.
Thinking about the natural curves of the female body, I slowly drafted a concept for the Nymphae Ring, with a feminine, soft-edged ruffle that I felt subtly emulated the inner labia. In a case of art imitating form, my solder-free design requirement kept the ring band slightly open next to the inner edge of the ruffled lip, echoing the natural opening next to a real labia.
Forging the ruffled lip into shape took the longest; annealing, hammering, stretching and bending the edge into the shape I designed, over and over until I was satisfied with the way the piece curved. I finished the piece with a soft sratch-finish to give the lip texture and contrasted it against the solid band by giving it a highly polished chrome finish.
I named it Nymphae; an anatomical reference the inner labia. I would have liked the ruffle to look more obviously like a labia lip – less wide, more density around the edge of the frill – and if I’d had the time to spare I may have had a go remaking it before submitting it. However the piece bore an obvious resemblance to my original concept sketches – so I was very happy for a first attempt.
