New Year, New Designs
It’s this time of year, when I can finally sit down and start designing a new collection. I usually have a few ideas floating around in my head since last year, but I simply haven’t had the time to make anything new with the December rush. It’s the first time I’ve been able to sit down and put pen to paper. After the madness of December, it's lovely to just be quiet and paint. There's no rushing and you have to be patient.
It’s nice to have a whole day in the studio to draw, sketch and paint anything new I want to get down on paper. It's also a lovely way to spend my evenings, and it's much more relaxing than staring at my phone!
I love nothing better than to open my stationary, with a cup of tea, and I put on my spotify playlist
Then I start putting brush to paper.
It’s a very different side to the job, even though it doesn't feel like work at all. Being a goldsmith means everything has to be exact, always measuring, and checking. This gives me freedom to make mistakes, and more often than not I do, when it comes to rendering a design. But sometimes I stand back, and if I squint, or tilt my head, I'll think - that'll do!
Before each collection is actually made, I play around with some metal, different shapes, gemstones and pearls, and see what happens organically. When the silver or gold piece is made, I then go back and paint a final, more accurate rendering using gouache. I hope, in years to come, it will be nice to look back over my paintings and see how I’ve progressed. But that will mean practicing!
In these pictures I've used:
Daler Rowney water colours,
Winsor & Newton gouache paints,
Faber-Castell polychromos,
I love to order all my stationary and art supplies from Cork Art Supplies
If you would like to see some of the best jewellery rendering in the business, go to Katerina Perez where you can view the beautiful renderings of Van Cleefs & Arpels and Dior
