» Listings for 2014

1. An interview with Agnieszka Maksymiuk - Finalist - Graduates in the Spotlight

   Posted on 11:00am Sunday 6th Apr 2014

   What inspired you to become a jewellery designer? Art has always been a big part of my life. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed drawing and painting, even as a child, I was aware that I would become an artist in the future. My aspirations came true at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk 2010, when I graduated in an MA Industrial Design course with the master thesis in jewellery. I’ve chosen jewellery as my main interest, because for me it is the combination of all the art disciplines (i.e. painting, sculpture, photography, graphic design), but in a small scale. In 2011 I left my native country Poland and moved to Birmingham in the UK to improve my skills in crafting jewellery. I did a HND Jewellery & Silversmithing course at The School of Jewellery in Birmingham to learn more traditional jewellery making techniques, where I am now an Artist in Residence and visiting lecturer. What is your favourite piece of jewellery? (either made or purchased) I’ve found that customers really like my “Looking into London” Ring, which has been featured in a Jewelspan Wow-Factor Competition as a first prize winner. This piece is one of my favourites as well and it’s not only because I love London. A ring tells the viewer a story about the incredible city, where all the hand carved details are inspired by London’s architecture. The reflections of the landmarks appear on the silver disc in the middle, like in the River Thames which flows through the centre of London. I enjoy the moment of surprise and admiration when a customer looks inside a piece and can see his reflection. This represents being inside a city surrounded by all the greatest monuments. Which celebrity would you love to wear your jewellery and why? I feel that designing and making jewellery is an act of creation. My works aims to exist as a small sculpture and becomes a piece of art. That’s why I’ve found that people with creative minds like my jewellery more. It would be a real honour to see architects such as Zaha Hadid and Kazuyo Sejima or an artist like Ester Roi wearing my jewellery. I fully admire their taste, talent and creativity. Out-with jewellery is there any other career that you would love to try? I worked as a make-up artist for a couple of years. It gave me a lot of satisfaction and I hope to get back to this profession in future. It’s a very creative and aesthetic craft, where attention to detail and understanding of colour are essential. I would love to do more fashion make-up, so I have more freedom as a creator.   What can we expect to see from you in the future? Carving + enamelling = sculpture + painting = jewellery These are my plans for the nearest future. I would like to draw more and explore enamelling techniques to find new outcomes.

    

    

2. The History of the Engagement Ring

   Posted on 11:00am Sunday 30th Mar 2014

   History of the Engagement Ring   Ancient Rome The Engagement ring can reliably be traced back to ancient Rome, however some historians say early man tied plaited circlets around the bride's wrists and ankles to keep her spirit from running away.
   Ancient Rome had a few traditions such as in the second century BC the bride to be was given two engagement rings, a gold one she wore in public and an iron one she wore at home while doing the housework. Another tradition that symbolised ownership by the groom was to give their prospective wife a ring attached to small keys that belonged to him. We found these pictures of early Roman 'Key Rings' there is no mention that these were engagement rings but they are extraordinary beautiful and at the time very useful as the Romans did not have many pockets for their keys!
   In Rome and many countries the engagement ring was worn on the 3rd finger on the left hand because they believed that it contained a vein that led to the heart therefore the ring would be connected to the heart to symbolise love and a long healthy marriage.   A Roman iron engagement ring
   Diamond Engagement Ring History   The ornate and sentimental Victorians popularized engagement rings with mixed precious metals, enamels gemstones and diamonds. They would often be made into intricate patterns and flowers you can see a great collection of this type of jewellery at the Cheapside Hoard exhibition in London. http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/cheapside-hoard-londons-lost-jewels/ Diamond rings crafted during the Edwardian era continued the tradition of pairing diamonds with other jewels, commonly mounted in filigree settings. Diamonds were too rare and expensive for the less wealthy citizens until the discovery of diamonds in south Africa in 1870, where the De Beers company became the sole owner of these mines. Diamond engagement rings however are quite a recent innovation first becoming popular in 1930's, by 1965, 80 percent of all new brides in the united states owned one.
   The Eureka Diamond We found this great story of how the first diamond was discovered in South Africa which is now the diamond capital of the world. It began with a 15 year old boy named Erasmus Jacobs whose father owned a farm on the orange river near Hopetown. Erasmus had helped his dad unclog a water pipe by finding a long stick, after he had found the perfect stick he sat under a tree to rest and spotted something shining in the heated afternoon sun. He went over and saw it was a stone and picked it up and placed it in his pocket. After helping his father he started to play “5 stones” with the diamond, his mother noticed the shine and mentioned it to their neighbour, Shalk Van Niekerk. He was intrigued by the stone and offered to buy it from Erasmus who instead of selling it gave it to him saying “you can keep the stone if you want it,” little did he know this was now to be known as the whopping 21.25 carat Eureka Diamond.

    

    

    

3. Jewellery Making - Granualtion

   Posted on 4:22pm Wednesday 5th Mar 2014

   In this tutorial we will be showing you how to create granulation with three small pieces of 18 carat gold. You can use any left over pieces of silver or gold. Granulation detail are great for using as organic detail in jewellery or if you want to create a bubble effect. It is easy to create granulation with metals of a lower melting point. If you wanted to create granulation with platinum for example, because of it's high melting point you would have to use a specialised blow torch rather than a standard jewellers blow torch.