mendhi inspired necklace

I used beeswax that I rolled into thin sausages for the stem of the leaves.I then made the little petals.I made 5 different variations of the element so that I could see which size works better for my piece.

 I built my tree with my wax elements.at this stage some off the petals were falling off,I fixed them as they fell.

Here's my tree now all i need to do is invest and cast.

My cast elements had fingerprints on them,The prints were created when I rolled the wax.Kathlyn recomended to engrave veins onto the petals so that they distracted away from the fingerprints and added texture to my elements.

I initially wanted to use my elements as it is,(the same shape and size) to create my necklace.However after speaking to my classmate Songezo Baleni,he recomended that I let the size of the elements decrease outwards.

mendhi inspired necklace

My next piece im attempting to make is a necklace to complement the previous mendhi earrings however they must be more 3-D as opposed to the earrings that were 2-D.I want to use the same pattern,instead of piercing them out of plate im going to roll wax to form the elements and cast them.

Mendhi earrings and reflection

Sterling Silver and red cubic zirconia

I like the fact that the earrings are very light weight and had movement.It is also very comfortable and easy to put on.I think the silver and red beads adds colour to the piece and makes it look beautiful and precious

Mehndi earrings

mendhi stamp

mendhi stamp

This fusion of eastern and western jewellery needs to be predominant in all my work.In this case I want to create a pair of earrings that have both eastern and western influences.The eastern influence will derive from traditional indian patterns whilst the western influence will derive from the form and style of western earrings.Concerntrating on chandelier earrings,That I belive are decorative, these hang from the base which is usually a stud,it also has muliple levels that creates movement.

I choose to work with these elements was because I was given a set of wooden mendhi stamps from Mumbai ,India.The stamps derived from the traditional method of temporarily decorating the skin of brides.The traditional method of applying the mendhi was done using a plastic cone from which a tiny hole is cut and applied to the skin in fine patterns.The stamps are a easier method of applying the mendhi.The stamps are made by carving patterns onto wood.This stamp can then be dipped into ink and pressed onto skin.

mendhi applied using the stamp

I used the stamp to create a varity of patterns on a piece of paper.These formed chanderlier earring patterns that were just floating on the page.I then drew my final design that I began translating into metal.

final design

Working in thin plate 0.6mm would allow the earring to be elaborate but light in weight.I wanted to portray the elements in such away that it represents the mendhi pattern that is flat however I rounded the edges so that they were no longer sharp.

I started thinking about the way the elements needed to be attached and asked myself these questions,How small does the jumprings need to be?How do I make the stud with the post go with my design?Will it move nicely?How will the element for the upper ear attach to the ear?

I solved my problems by sketching ideas that came to mind.By me solving these problems allowed me to improve on my work from a design point of view and a technical point of view .I had all my elements that needed to be soldered.They were light in weight and because I highly polished them they looked so shiny and needed some sort of colour.I attached silver beads with red cubics that added sparkle and was the focal point.The reason for choosing the beads with the colour red symbolises the colour of the mendhi and added movement to the chandelier.

Forehead tiara

My aim was to create a head piece that I would use on my wedding day. Im looking at all the many different styles of tiaras that can be worn over the hair to represent a Sirbhandi. The sirbhandi is worn on the middle part of the hair with a dangle bit that sits on the forehead. The reason I dont want to wear a sirbhandi is because during the Hindu wedding ceremony the groom puts a red powder called sindur on her hair path so this is a symbol of her marriage. The sirbhandi needs to be lifted and needs to be placed back before and after the application. This is time consuming knowing that hindu marriages are known to be 3 hours long.So I would love to have a forehead tiara that would serve the same beauty of a sirbhandi but would allow my hair path with sindur be visible,its a sybol of marriage so I dont want to hide it behind a sirbhandi. I want it to have a fantasy look,eastern and western fusion.

I designed and sketched ideas and thoughts whilst solving problems like catch solutions.I used my references which were pictures of tiaras from Alien Bears blog(group of designers that fuse eastern and western jewellery)to help me solve some problems e.g their form,how are they placed on the head and how is it attached.

I began interperating my designs into metal,I began by melting my metal and rolling it into a bar that I Forged into the intial frame of the tiara.I forged square wire into creating swirls that looked decorative,complemented the piece and gave it a fantasy look.

I found pictures of 2 different flowers that complemented my piece.I pierced these flowers out of thin silver plate(0.5mm) filed and sanded them so that they no longer had sharp edges.I also added granulation to the flowers before I could solder all my elements together.

After sanding and polishing the tiara I draped threads of swarovski crytals along with the flowers.I feel as though Ive achieved what I set out to do,although my finished piece does look different as opposed to my initail design,reason being my finish piece was actually started off as being my prototype so I changed certain elements as I went along.

My finish piece however after the jewellery crit I feel I need to add some sort of colour so to let the metal stand out,maybe different colour beads. 

Forged Flower

Design Book Cover - The Character of my designs