Anglo Gold Auditions Competition

The designs to the making. The competition was based around a concept of urban tribes. I designed a jewellery piece for a character called the gold digger and an accessory for a character called the black gold prince.

These are the designs...

and this is the making, lecturers of mine did the manufacturing.

Finished

Finshed my jewellery design and manufacture course yesterday. The exhibit is on the 23rd of november here are some pics of my exhibit for the lecturers to mark.

some new jewellery

This work is going towards my end of year exhibit.

Thesis 2009

My thesis is available at: http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bxyt4qTfAjfONDk3MzQzOWUtODkyMC00NjM0LTkxZTEtYmUyODcwNWI1M2Iw&hl=en

Platinum ring

I hope I learnt a little bit more about platinum because of the construction of the ring. Platinum does not conduct heat so when sweat soldering the third plate of the ring together I melted it. I should have used an easier solder. Eventually I soldered a pin/rivet to hold the plates together. This is a perfect example of how this metal behaves differently to metals like silver and gold.



It takes a long time to clean platinum but the results are worth it.

Anglo plat competition

This is still a work in progress... It will be a ring when I'm finished. I know it looks a bit strange but I still need to pierce out the shank.

The theme for the competition is quite broad. It is about African wedding ceremonies. My ring is inspired by the earrings given by the husband to his wife when he gets married and she is never seen without them once married. The Masai tribe from Kenya practice this marriage tradition.

Yay

Finally my site is up and running... Bit of a mission since I'm technologically challenged when dealing with computers. But did most of it myself so a it worked out a lot cheaper. The site still needs some work but its a good start. There are a few mistakes which I missed but will change as soon as possible.

Social networking

I know blogs are supposedley the new web site, but I feel social networks especailly sights like flickr that are designed to be super transparent are much more interactive. Blogs can be sometimes hard to search and don't have that conectability of some social media formats. Maybe I 've just spent a little too much time on Flickr lately. I've really enjoyed it and I think it is time for the facebook era to come to an end. Lets rather meet new people not be friends with the people we already know. I think thats got a bit boring already! Facebook needs to reinvent itself before it falls away in the competitive environment of social networking.

Playing on rhino

Just a few rings that I've drawn up some of them will be cut on a milling machine out of wax and then cast. I like using rhino for very geometric as it is obviously always perfect. Machine drawn often lends itself to machine made....

Still a work in progress. When my flash drive crashed I lost mostly rhino work...

Technology's downfall

My flash drive decided to wipe itself clean and now doesn't work. Unfortunately I had a lot of work on it and so it naturally ended in tears. Advice to all please back up work onto pc or hard drive it is so important. Flash drives these days are not reliable. My sony 128 that is about 5 years old still runs perfectly but the new just aren't made the same. I lost hours of work! Just a warning...

orianatodesco.com

Yay, I bought the domain yesterday. So going to do my best to get everything up and running as soon as possible.

pieces to purchase

On my site I will have to sell some of my jewellery. This will form part of my thesis. This was quite a hard decision as I am quite attached to some of the pieces. I have never sold anything on the net so lets see how it goes. Here are some pieces that I want to sell and I need to start manufacturing to add to this list.

web

Been working on a web site for myself so been sitting for hours in front of the computer. But I have also been a bit lazy as we have had so many public holidays in April that it has been hard to stay focused. A friend of mine took most of the photos of my jewellery so I had good quality images to start with. There are a few I took and the difference is very clear.

I redesigned my business card and changed the colours because I want this to link up to my web site. I have kept it simple. This is what my site and my cards are like.

rhino and wax

The strive for perfection when manufacturing can be very very frustrating. I've started this year off by using a millling machine to help me in this quest for perfection. If I had to handmake the pieces i have designed I think i would slowly fall into a deep jewellery depression.

The first piece came out alright except that my proportions were very wrong. I am still learning how the digital format looks and then how it translates into analogue. On rhino things look all good. Except when I cut it out of wax on the milling machine the proportions were not as I had imagined.

Thought i got it right but still being a learner these rings haven't come out as planned. It could have been the drill bit or the settings it made a really wierd pattern and the finish was bad.

I like jewellery that moves. All the pieces of this pendant rotate around a central axis. One side of the setting is an onyx and the other side a moonstone, anything black behind a moonstone always brings out its best colours. I like the repitition and balance this piece has. My first piece I made in third year. Will put up some pictures of my first pieces in 4th year.

Something about nothing

So do we assume or believe that "something" is the opposite of "nothing" and naturally "nothing" is the opposite of "something."

Or is nothing actually something?

It has to be something... i think if i had to translate it into my words it would be a space containing not one thing. So therefore nothing is maybe something that is not taken into consideration a nonentity.

It is not taken into consideration as it contains nothing. As soon as a thing is added it becomes something. I think when we start with an idea, a seed it is nothing but through a process of add and subtract we arrive at a something. Nothing is where we start to create something!

I must think more about this...

Friday 13th

Today, I have opened my blog. It marks the begining of many hours sitting in front of my computer. I feel i need to keep up with our ever speeding, changing, inspiring evironment. I am sure this is a step in the right direction.

Friday 13th is the start and the finish. My studying time will come to an end on Friday the 13th in November this year. I think its about time; unfortunately i can't be a student forever....