Saturday madness

Went into university on Saturday, for #saturdaymadness with my girl Katie Alderson (Ideology Workshop). I began piercing out circles to start my final pieces, getting a precise circle is exhausting, but practice makes perfect!

Final collection design concept

Final collection is beginning to come together, my concept is to create modular multi-functional jewellery pieces, that are a brooch, necklace and ring all in one, these are some of my paper models, beginning to work with silver this week, and a bold decision to make some large scale pieces to compliment the modular pieces.

Ring making day

Had a fab full day in the workshop today making granulation silver rings for a craft fair I'm exhibiting and selling my work at during the Easter break, made nine in total, here are seven that I've finished ready for polishing...

In other news, as I already take a Mandarin language night class my Chinese friend offered to help tutor me for an hour or so every day and in exchange I am helping her to improve her English (which is already a lot better than my Mandarin!) and so far our sessions are going great! Really feel like I'm improving more now, I'll be ready to move to Shanghai in no time!

谢谢我的朋友子妍!

Drawing update - life drawing day one

Even though I've been totally swamped with dissertation work I managed to take two days out to sneak into the 2nd Year's life drawing classes, as I wanted to start drawing people again, so I can draw my jewellery designs onto my own illustrations.

Check out some of my drawings from day one here: 
http://ameliahalesdrawing.blogspot.co.uk/

A peek into my Design Setchbook

Some of my recent design ideas, lots of things going on, but I really want to focus on a few aspects/ideas and then push those ideas forward further.
(Click on the images to expand for a closer look)

What do you think? Let me know....

New Enamels and Colours

These are the first test pieces using my new Efcolour enamels, with colours taken from my initial colour inspiration imagery (see previous blog post) and using red as an accent colour as in Chinese culture red is considered a symbol of good luck and fortune, traditionally believed to ward away evil spirits. I really like the combinations with red, I think because it isn't so neon it helps to ground the pieces, however I want to keep it as a subtle accent, not an overly obvious Chinese aspect to the design.

Using tubing to represent architectural detailing found on traditional Chinese buildings...

Inspiration...

Plus the beginnings of some new pieces...

Colour Inspirations:

neon pink, acid yellow, sulphur green, black and grey with pops of colour, vivid highlights...

 

Check out my pinterest inspiration boards here... 

https://www.pinterest.com/ameliahalesntu/

 

Its been a while!

After months of working on my dissertation I'm finally down to the last couple of weeks of concluding, editing, proof reading, more editing, more proof reading and the final hand-in!

So thoughts have turned back to working on my blog after much neglect since second year. 

But first though let me tell you what I got up to over summer (it really has been a while!)...

I was lucky enough to spend the summer of 2014 working for one month in Beijing at Paloma Sanchez Joallerie d'Art in Beijing. I got to live in the 798 Art District and met so many great people along the way too, which was then followed by a month of travelling with my new found friends across China; including Shanghai, Xi'an and Chengdu and a night of camping on the Great Wall!

My visit to China has furthered my passion for the country, it's culture, architecture, language and people, and I hope to go back there to live and work someday. For now it is helping to inspire my whole body of work, and I am learning new things every day, as well as continuing my studies Mandarin alongside my degree.

As graduation is in sight I thought I would document my journey of the last two terms I'll ever spend at NTU!

To kick off I have a few drawing updates, which can be found here:

http://ameliahalesdrawing.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's a little preview of what I've been working on in terms of drawing, lots of collage, colour and line, inspired by my favourite place in the world....

Countdown to graduation begins....

Final Collection Finished, Second year nearly over!

So I've finally made it to the end of the project and I'm really pleased with the outcomes. (I even got all the work finished before the deadline!!) Here is my lovely friend modelling two of the pieces to show them in context..

 

As you can see I have placed the pendants at different lengths, and they would be offered to customers at a range of lengths to suit what they want. Also, in the bottom left corner you can see how I have disguised the ends of the thread with a small piece of brass tubing. I think it gives the piece a sleek and subtle finish, which keeps the focus on the pendant.

  

Here is all my work set up in my little studio space ready for presentation and assessment. Ive gone for a white background this time instead of the usual black mount board as I felt the shadows from the pierced pieces are a feature that should be considered.

 

Very excited to present my work, and get some feedback, I really feel that my work has developed so much this year and I'm very proud of how I've progressed. Ready to start planning for third year now!!!

Exploring Colour and Line - Drawing Update

Some new drawings and paintings from both my drawing project and personal sketchbook, for the full post and more drawings visit 

http://ameliahalesdrawing.blogspot.co.uk