Bead work

Imfibinga/Ubuchwabasi (Jobs tears/river stones)

These beads are usually found along the side of the river.

They come in natural grayish shades and they are almost shaped like an onion, with a semi oval top and a slightly rounded bottom. They have a hard shell like cover and they are soft in the middle with a hole that runs through, from top to bottom.

I felt interested in the way they naturally come in different shades so I decided to used that to create patterns for beaded neck pieces.

Triangle patterns using the Zulu love letter stitch to make a choker.

An Ombre of the variety of the shades from the beads, using the Rope stitch on a 4 strand pattern.

A twisted effect using the rope stitch, on a 3 strand pattern

I would enjoy to explore a bit more with these beads, for an example, to colour them in bright colours and use them in smaller jewellery pieces. 

Plat Africa Competition 2015

                                                          working drawings

Inspiration

Design concept 

Finished piece

Artist statement

Designing a collection of jewellery inspired by my findings from the Phansi Museum.

Beaded neck piece.

Icansi/Isicephu  bangle

Ihlali bangle

ELPPAG branding iron

Letters punched to brand a leather strip on a denim jacket with challenges of the letters not on the same level and no equal space in between (no accuracy).

4 view design for iron branding on Rhino

Roland WJX 10 CNC (Computerized Numeric Control) cutting machine in a process of cutting a more accurate branding mechanism on wax.

 Finished wax piece, ready to sprue and invest.

Sprued, ready to invest then let it dry for at least 3 hours before being put in a kiln overnight to burn the wax out.

Casting brass in progress.

Patiently waiting for the metal to cool down.

Cleaning up the investment and cutting off the sprues.

Branding iron mounted on to handle.

Burnt branded bag.

Embossed branded test piece.

Stone cutting

My interest of cutting stones resulted to a pair of oxidized silver and Transvaal jade studs.

Now looking forward to find out what is this mysterious looking stone. It is predominantly brown with white and some beautiful spectrum colour specs. 

2nd year jewellery pictures I found on my facebook

925 Silver earrings with blue bead on shepherds hook.  

925 Silver earrings with blue bead at the bottom.

925 Silver earrings without the blue bead.

Copper, brass and 925 silver bangle

925 silver and colorful resin stud earrings

Turquoise beads on 925 silver wire earrings

Close to nature

After collecting the fruit pips, i clean them up and let them dry for a few days.

I then split them in half and sand the saw marks off.

Spray paint and drill for the hooks.

My attention is drawn by the way these fruit pips have deep and shallow surfaces, some look like caves and some like mountains, hills and valleys of KwaNgcolosi, where I spent most of my childhood with my grandmother and uncle. Not much about my family instead mostly about my friends, where we would find ourselves deep in the bushes with our dogs. I guess the objective was to hunt but we would end up coming back home with no meat but our pockets filled with a variety of wild fruits and findings from our journey.