Sewing The Ring Together

So after testing the pierced silver piece against dozens of background fabric samples, i went with a shimmery, deep/bright red fabric.I had originally intended to 'sew' this piece of red fabric sandwiched between the decorative front and a solid silver back piece with coloured, enameled wire. However, the fine wire could not take the strain of going  through all the holes,and kept snaping before it reached the end, no matter how careful and delicate i was about threading i,.so i ended up using embroidery silk.

Tall Painting

silver, Pierced Ring. Against Fabric Samples.

After cutting the design i thought i was happy with in copper, and deciding i liked the finished maquette, i then cut the piece in silver. I finished the design (which is the front piece of a ring, as mentioned earlier) by filing and sanding all edges. Unlike the silver earrings i made last time, i did not file and sand edges to make it  look 3-D, i just tidied them up (painstakingly though as always.I'm a neurotic perfectionist if nothing else!!) Then, i tried the finished front part of the ring on top of several colours and types of material to see which one i preferred, as i had planned to have a flash of colour behind the pierced pattern i had cut out of silver.Because in my brief i was inspired by bright, Indian wedding ceremony's, and also because it's my favourite colour, i choose a deep/bright red with a sheen to it. Pictured above are three of the many fabrics that i photographed my silver ring piece against.   

Copper Maquette of Ring Design

Ok, so i know that a couple of days have passed since i said i was going to post a series of photos showing how i made a silver ring (around the same time as the earrings) for uni last year; and i did in fact spend quite a while finding all the pics i wanted to use, and also wrote the posts...and then...accidently deleted it all! So now here i am, trying to reproduce it all. Thing is, i have a terrible memory, so this time it might take me a little longer to post cos i can't remember which folders the pics where in. This is the first picture, which is of the design i drew, but on a copper maquette. Here it's already at the pierced out stage.

A Series of Posts.....

I was thinking, that while i was talking about the earrings i made last year, for uni, out of pierced silver, i might as well talk about the ring i made at the same time, for the same brief. It was also made from silver, also hand pierced, and inspired by Indian wedding culture. This time though, instead of using a painted silver backing (like i did with the earrings) i used a plain silver back,pierced silver front, and then in the middle sandwiched a piece of shimmering red fabric, and sewed the two sections of silver together with orange embroidery silk. Underneath i have posted a series of photographs showing how i made the ring, and why i used the colours and materials that i did. I have added each of these pics separately, so it may appear as if they are separate posts completely, but they aren't; it's just that i still can't seem to add two or more photographs without the site adding them back to front. This of course makes it impossible for me to write about a series of photographs  and for it to make any kind of sense. So i decided that the easiest thing for everyone would be if i just added each photo and description separately for now.So below are a series of six different photos showing the making of the ring, which will appear in a series of successive posts, just to make it easier for me to do and for you to read for the time being, untill i figure out differently. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.!?!

More Pics Of The Pierced Silver Earrings

The other day i put up a photo of silver earrings i made for uni last year. The picture wasn't very clear, and i've just found some more that i took at the time, so i thought i'd put a couple more up. One is jut a bigger and clearer pic of one of the earrings, complete with the painted silver back; and the other is without the back, and therefore in which you can see the true pierced design. I made these earrings so that it was possible to wear them either with or without the painted back piece, and also, the back could be worn on its own as well.

Momento Mori

For my dissertation that i recently handed in, i wrote a section about Momento Mori which means 'Remember you will die', and was, in Victorian times, part of the culture, and prevalent in the fields of painting, jewellery, photography etc. and of which i gathered many photographs. I thought i would share one of them with you tonight. You wouldn't say that i've become obsessed with them, but, they are poignant and thought provoking. Whether you're disgusted or intrigued by pictures like this is up to you, but all i have to say is that i, personally,  am fascinated with all aspects of our culture, whether it be past, present or future.This picture is typical, in that the deceased, in the middle, was placed in a pose, between family members, looking as if still alive. Remember, though, that in this age when photography was a fairly new thing, many familys could only afford this one photograph, of a loved one,and therefore this picture was the only one, tangible thing that a person could remember their loved one by.