theme for the book?

I have been thinking about how I could make my paper jewellery book more interesting. Perhaps showcasing the designs of jewellers in paper or showing a history of jewellery, throughout the times... Victorian jewellery for example. Then I thought back to one of my passions, tattoos (above is a part of my most recent tattoo). 

I have been looking into the history of tattoos, all the different styles and how they vary in different countries, both in how they are done and their styles. These range from the bronze age, Egyptian, Polynesian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Celtic and Vikings among others. I think this could be an interesting thing to look into for my project. Maybe making each item of jewellery typical of a country or time. I have more research to do and I am hopefully going to do some research in a tattoo studio.

book of paper jewellery

I came up with a new idea of making a book of paper jewellery. Each page of the book would have a different item of jewellery that the user can pull out and wear. It would just be one use and then recycled, so sort of a sustainable type of jewellery maybe. I also thought about each page being screen printed or have different illustrations on them. Possibly a showcase for different artists?  

I have decided to steer clear of the wedding anniversary materials route now. After a lot of thinking, I know it's not me. I have lost all faith in marriage and most relationships in fact! So I think it would be hypocritical of me to do a project based around it. I am so much happier with my book of paper jewellery idea, however, I need to give it more depth, possibly a theme. 

change in direction?

After all the experimenting with making origami with different materials, it might not be possible to make them all like origami. I am going to have to rethink my plan! I could still focus on origami but with flower petals, for example. I could still use the wedding anniversary materials or I could do something completely different! I need to think!

13th anniversary: lace

For lace, I experimented with moulding it in resin. It was still pliable enough to be bended which could be made into origami. I could also laser cut the lines to fold to make them more precise- I will try this with the flower petals in resin as well. 

9th anniversary: copper

I used copper mesh to bend into origami shapes but I would like them to be more intricate. I think I would have to use tools to make them more detailed.

8th anniversary: salt

I face the same problems with salt as I did sugar. I used rock salt because it is coarser and shows up better when it was moulded. I moulded it in latex as well as resin. I like the resin as it looks like jewels and would be an usual piece of jewellery.

6th anniversary: sugar

Sugar is going to be difficult to make origami out of! I tried moulding sugar in resin which looked quite nice and could be used as part of a piece of jewellery (I also tried different colours with food colourings) but this is going off brief.

5th anniversary: wood

For wood, I got a pattern for origami folds and laser cut them onto a rough piece of wood. I think, to make it look more like origami I would have to construct different pieces of wood together and make them fit to create a model. 

4th anniversary: flowers

I have found the flowers really interesting to work with. I have put some petals and leaves in resin which look quite nice but they tend to discolour in the resin. I also sprayed some in varnish which kept the colour better but I'm not sure if they will last as long. I have also made basic jewellery out of biodegradable plant pots. They have seeds inside them so the wearer can eventually plant them to let the flower grow.

3rd anniversary: leather

The leather was quite difficult to make intricate shapes out of as it is so thick, I couldn't even sew parts to help the structure stay in place. I folded this simple shape & tried ironing and used a small amount of glue to hold it all together. I would like to find a way to the leather look more delicate because I can't get crisp, defined points when folding at the moment.

1st anniversary: cotton

The first of the anniversary materials is cotton. I used plain pieces of cotton & ironed them as I folded the origami shapes. I added a few layers of hairspray as well to make the material stiffer. I really liked the outcome, it looks similar to paper but has a more interesting texture.

experimenting with origami

I have been attempting to teach myself origami, it's actually harder than it looks! I've done a few things with paper that you can see above. I love the effect that you can see in the bottom photograph. As part of my wedding materials idea, I have also pressed some flower petals and leaves and dipped them in resin. I'm not sure if the effect has been very successful so I am going to try some other techniques. I have also laser cut an origami pattern on some wood which looks quite nice. I have a board in the studio that will display all of the materials I am using. I am finding it quite hard to transfer origami folding techniques to solid materials but I am trying to think outside the box to create some unusual results. 

origami jewellery

The idea I decided to take forward onto the play stage was origami jewellery. This idea stood out to me to be the one I would have most fun with for the rest of the year. It's quirky and individual. When talking to Jon, he suggested looking at Wedding anniversary materials. Making the origami jewellery out of each material given as wedding anniversary presents, from paper to flowers to silver. I think this is an interesting route to go down so I plan to do more research and start testing different materials and my origami skills!

find: 100 ideas

I produced my sketchbook of 100 ideas based around the research I did through cultural probes and questionnaires. This gave me 10 insights, based around personalisation, why people do it and what would encourage them to do it. 

After coming up with my 100 ideas, I then narrowed them down to 20. These 20 went forward to ideas day. People from design and academia came to help us decide which of our ideas were the best. This allowed me to narrow down to: origami jewellery, secret message ring, music bead necklace, earring earphones and drum trousers.

4th year

My fourth year project is based around Personalisation. Making objects feel more personal to individuals, displaying aspects of their personality and making them feel unique. I have discovered through research such as cultural probe packs and questionnaires that personalisation is a way to help people create a sense of individuality and promote creativity. This can be displayed not only in the way you look but also by the products you use and how you use them.

I discovered that making objects yourself gives some people a sense of accomplishment and empowerment. I wanted to create a product that was not completely ready-made, allowing the user to adapt it to how they want and make each one different.