mehndi with wax

this was really soft beeswax used for waxing shoes, I put pieces of wax into the cone and melted it in the microwave.
as the wax began to melt it started flowing towards the tip. I cut a small hole at tyhe tip and began creating designs,the wax has to be inbetween melting and cooling point to create these patterns. I noticed if its too liguid it spills everywhere when squeesed. if it to cold the wax that comes out of the tube starts curling into the air,it doesnt stick to the surface being worked on. The cone also becomes difficult to squeeze.

draped hair accessory

Ive decided to make the elements by hand, reason being, I made a mould which doesnt inject so well, its costing a lot of time. And after casting, cutting the elements off the tree and cleaning them will be such a mission,I  prefer making them by hand, I find it quite de-stressing.

As I use my pliers to bend these into shapes,it becomes like a recipe in my mind,I know exactly how much to bend them so that they ,sort off look the same

forging them changes their shape,they now look like mehndi squeesed out of a bottle amd using the tip of the bottle to press in down so that it touches the skin and creates the marks of the bottle.

the little balls that are solderd onto the jumprings that will then be soldered onto the forged 's' shaped wires.

draped hair accessory

My relative is gettng married and she asked me to design and make he a bridal head piece based on a brand of accessories by Kim Kardashian called noel belle head chain. however she wanted me to include my style,and add mehndi elements to create the chain

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=belle+noel+hair+chain&hl=en&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_iXGT9ifO8TN4QSFurDdBQ&ved=0CGIQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=571

forged wire

soldered on the silver balls with jumprings

i soldered a y-shaped wire to the element so that the wax can flow

in order to make a 5 layered chain with this element i have to use approxmatley 188 of these elements so im gonna make a mould and inject wax to cast them,if my mould is not successful, since its so thin,it might not inject properly,i will do it by hand,soldering each one indiviually,i find this process of making each link theraputic.

mehndi patterns with bitumen test pieces

I used a ink bottle with nozzle to create mehndi patterns on copper plates.The reason for doing this, is so that im able to etch these plates and see if this process of applying other materials sutible for etching in the same way mehndi is applied to skin.

I mixed bitumen with a few drops of thinners just to make it the sort off consistancy of mehndi.

it creates the pattern beautifully however the bitumen pattern begins to spread out after a few seconds

on paper it also works nicely.it doesnt spread on the paper but on the metal it does

copper bangles with edinburgh etch

In 1st year I was told to use a thin layer of bitumen for etching as it will dry quickly, I also noticed that the bitumen peeled of easily.I feel painting on a thick layer and just leaving it to dry for a longer time works better, in that it doesnt peel.

I used the Edinburgh Etch for copper,this is the outcome after 3 hours of keeping it in the solution. The etch is not very deep, but it is very neat as opposed to nitric acid that bites the metal visciously but leaves the metal rough. the wider scratches that were made in the bitumen by a scribe etched quicker than the fine lines. This just means that I will have to leave it longer in the etching solution.

draped head accessory

This is a piece I was asked to make for a mehndi night,there are two versions I want to make. One will be made with beads and diamantes as per the bride and the other I will make that has more detail including mehndi patterns.

 This prototype was made with wool and held together by tape,perose of this was to get an idea of how much beads will be needed to round up quotation.

 I bought plastic combs and cast them and cleaned them.

kruger coin pendant

I was asked to make a pendant with a given gold Kruger Rand coin.It is made for a baby ordered by her grandmother. Must not be sharp as to hurt the baby or catch onto her clothes. I made a prototype to show them using wax.

I cut 3mm of a wax tube and used the 'cheese slicer' the tool used to shape the inside of the wax ring to a specific size, I made little balls out of beeswax to go around the ring like little beads to  look like this. I decided to make the prototype in this way so that is the lady likes it, I can just cast it.

I left a space for the jumring and v-loop.i stuck the balls with supperglue so that they dont fall off.i would have to make claws that keeps the coin in place after casting.

The grandmother wasnt very happy when she saw the prototype she wanted someting as she describes as plain and simple so I decided to draw a simple pendant with twisted wire which she liked.

 And now she loves it.

wedding souvenirs

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I painted the pieces and they got stuck together so I had to break the pieces apart from each other.

These were some of the pictures I chose to use for the souvenirs

wedding souvenirs

This is the keyring that I bought from the festival and made a mould of it,it was plated gold,however when i made the mould the plating sort off peeled and stuck onto my mould,I like this keyring because it had print on both sides. I engraved our names on them.

It was really painfull injecting wax into the moulds,it took me the entire day to inject 70 keyrings,this was because the keyring is thick and the wax took longer to dry and I only had one mould.

By this time I was over it,I wanted to something that would go alot faster because I would still have to make the jumprings and the key rings.