PDA

View Full Version : Designing Jewellery



EmmaC
27-05-2014, 01:22 PM
I've been quite surprised on my meanderings around the internet that a lot of discussion is given to the techniques of how to make jewellery, but I've seen very little about the actual design aspects of it, which I think is equally important. I had to grit my teeth somewhat when I saw a jewellery shopping channel suggest to viewers they use Google images to source stuff, print it out, cut around it, then charge a premium price for it.

Currently I use a sketchbook initially, but have recently started using Adobe Illustrator to make templates for pieces which I can then print out, glue on, and cut. I find it easier to do it on a computer since I can draw a sheep but not a decent smooth line so it seems! Even graph paper and various French curves don't give me the result I can get with using a vector program. My limit really is I'm not particularly great with illustrator, it's not an easy intuitive program for me, so the frustration level tends to be quite high given my liking for intricate pierced Gothic type designs.

I'm just using techniques I know from my background in art, so I'm really interested in the different way jewellers on here go through for the actual designing bit of the process. Do you sketch, draw it freehand, use a computer, or go straight onto the metal?

CJ57
27-05-2014, 03:28 PM
I mostly go straight into metal, having been made at college to do drawings with side elevations and end elevations blah blah I rarely put anything on paper now. I did a few rough sketches before my last body of work and I'll maybe put a few lines on paper but it usually evolves as I work because apart from the spoons I make very little again and it's really just the bowl shape I have a blank for.
i have pictures of shapes and things that inspire me on the workshop wall but it mostly is somewhere in the recesses of my brain which is a bit worrying:)

Patstone
27-05-2014, 03:44 PM
Oh no, have to draw just about everything on paper which I cut out and stick on to the silver sheet with Pritt stick.

caroleallen
27-05-2014, 04:32 PM
I love to scribble.

medusa
27-05-2014, 04:37 PM
I will sketch out first as a way of working out any technical stuff and then when I go to metal I usually discover the two imperative steps that I missed out in the sketch phase.

ShinyLauren
27-05-2014, 04:39 PM
I always draw first, then scan in the drawing, darken the lines, print out on sticky labels and stick to the metal. I am useless at computer programs though - Illustrator makes my head hurt!

Dennis
27-05-2014, 04:40 PM
I draw it in rough, but often quite large. Then I put it on a light box and trace it more formally. Finally I reduce it on my photocopier to the size required, print it and stick it on the metal with Pritt. This makes the lable easy to wash off later.

If the form is intricate, I then spray with art fixative to avoid blurring while piercing. Any straight lines are marked on the metal, by cutting right through with a fresh craft blade and a ruler. Sometimes I mark the centre of circles with a small round burr, to scribe later, when the paper has been removed. Dennis.

LydiaNiz
27-05-2014, 08:16 PM
I have a zillion sketchbooks around the house, and 2b pencils (I bite people if they take them) and always have a posca paint marker so I can sketch ideas. it's 50/50 if I go from a drawing or straight to metal. Sometimes I just know the feel of what I want to do, and do it.

Spectra
27-05-2014, 08:29 PM
I use sketchbooks for sketches (genius thinking there...),which are either new ideas or developments that I'm intentionally thinking of or have thought of before.

Most of my designs start off as random doodles that I have never grown out of doing!If I'm on the phone,being bored by my dad visiting,or just read a letter and started colouring letters in (!) I will end up with a page full of 'doodles' that can be quite arty or stylised animals,flowers etc etc then I just look at them an the interesting shapes and some eventually make it to my sketch book!

I always,always,always,colour/shade/scribble with metallic markers in silver,gold and copper (more like rose gold tbh) after final sketches though,to get an idea of how they'll look

memattaylor
28-05-2014, 12:30 PM
This is an interesting one for me as I am always being told in classes that my design process needs to be more arty, so take an object - a shell for example, sketch the shell, take an aspect of the shell that inspires a suitable conversion to metal in some form, then get technical and deal with the 'how you are actually going to make it' stage.

But to be honest I really struggle with getting inspiration all the time from different objects or forms.

My ideas seem to come into my head based on a kind of 'I wonder if that would look nice or, I could make something like this' type of approach, then I go straight to technical sketches of size and cut lists etc.

I guess 25 years of working with technical drawings has knocked any informal creativity out of me and as a result sketching is difficult to me.

I am working on looking at objects or nature with a 'more seeing eye' in order to get inspired for more creative jewellery design, but I find it so hard. I end up thinking 'oh that feather is gorgeous, I should try making a feather!' as opposed to getting inspired to make something that is not a feather yet inspired by a feather! (If that makes sense????)

This is quite a waffley response, so apologies but I find it hard to explain that I'm not very creative I guess! I wished I could start to doodle, sketch some more and in half an hour have 3 new designs in my sketch book, as opposed to my sketch book being full of dimensions and cut lists.

Does this mean I'm left-brained, right-brained or just a half wit?:confused:

CJ57
28-05-2014, 05:10 PM
I think I had the drawing part bored out of me! In our first year at ECA we were taken out drawing a lot and I vividly remember being taken to the museum to draw machinery and make the moving parts look as if they were moving in the drawing. I couldn't get my head round it at all. When I plumped for jewellery in my 2nd year we had a whole day a week devoted to natural drawing and design. I do get the point and I'm capable of doing quite technical drawings but because I wanted to be doing things with my hands I found it hard. Is that the wrong side of the brain, I understand the hands on process rather than the following diagrams? I can transfer it to metal better than to paper

Wendy Moriarty
28-05-2014, 06:36 PM
This is really interesting,
in college we had to produce a min of 10 designs for every one we were going to make, and we had specifics like 'cubism inspired valentines broach' to follow and we had to do primary and secondary research, and picture boards (I hated those the most), mind maps and lists, which was all new to me, I found it quite difficult sometimes, but I learned so much, and I'm sure it would be great use for commission work and it stretches you design wise, but I'm not naturally much of a sketcher, I do small quick sketches (on a post it note pad) to get an idea down before I forget it, and I've learned it's much more practical to sketch design first and iron out flaws, but I often just go straight to work on the metal, I think it is because I'm not very good at sketching and am not able to produce a drawing that matches the mental image, but am able to produce a piece of jewellery that does match my mental image. Also even when I have sketched a design it usually changes during the actual making, so for me I think working with the metal is part of my design process, and I get inspiration as I am working with the metal

silver70
29-05-2014, 08:39 AM
This is interesting - I have dabbled in jewellery making for a while now but am moving my interest from beads to silversmithing most recently and design work. I am starting a course in September for silversmithing and I am a little worried about my drawing skills. I did a project to be accepted on the course and they said it was fine but I am well aware that my drawing skills are naive! I can design and design in my head constantly but am a little tense that I won't be able to get it onto paper as my "art" skills do not match my creativity in my head or jewellery making knowledge. Anyone who has done a course - how important is it that you can "draw" and any advice on how to make sure I can?! I have a few books to try and teach me but is drawing part of the course - do they "teach" you to do jewellery drawing and drawing on these courses or are you expected to be able to be at a good standard before you go? Thanks.

EmmaC
29-05-2014, 06:51 PM
Such interesting responses, thank you! I have this anorack like interest in how creative people go about things, a bit like when you get a peek into another artists studio, always very interesting! Total respect to anyone who goes straight onto metal. I'm like a driver who needs both a map and a sat nav! :D


silver70
This is interesting - I have dabbled in jewellery making for a while now but am moving my interest from beads to silversmithing most recently and design work. I am starting a course in September for silversmithing and I am a little worried about my drawing skills. I did a project to be accepted on the course and they said it was fine but I am well aware that my drawing skills are naive! I can design and design in my head constantly but am a little tense that I won't be able to get it onto paper as my "art" skills do not match my creativity in my head or jewellery making knowledge. Anyone who has done a course - how important is it that you can "draw" and any advice on how to make sure I can?! I have a few books to try and teach me but is drawing part of the course - do they "teach" you to do jewellery drawing and drawing on these courses or are you expected to be able to be at a good standard before you go? Thanks

I haven't been on a jewellery course, however I would say don't worry about your drawing. A lot of artists will have you believe it's some magical and mystical thing. It isn't, a lot of it's down to practise and learning to really look. Looking is probably the hardest bit. I don't feel I really know anything properly until I've drawn it. In the summer a lot of places run short drawing courses if you're really worried. Doodling and sketching is a good place to start, just don't be judgemental, and don't show anyone. Showing someone my sketchbooks would in my mind be akin to showing them my knickers, because it's the only place I draw in a really free non self concious manner, to practise or get down ideas, without the intention of producing something finished :)

silver70
29-05-2014, 08:19 PM
Thanks Emma! I am starting to practice with my books so hopefully I will be able to draw enough to get me through what I need to. I have just been using a4 at the moment - I have sketchbooks but don't feel good enough to commit to real books at the moment.

CJ57
29-05-2014, 09:03 PM
We were made in our first drawing classes to draw with charcoal or chalk, really free sweeping stuff big sheets of paper just to get your eye in for shapes and movement and make you look at things. As I don't draw much now I did some of that a few weeks ago and I quite enjoyed it. A roll of wallpaper lining paper is cheap and you can tear it of as needed, just draw what you see. Don't worry about detail and design. As Emma says it's opening yourself up to what's around you. Carry a notebook in your bag and doodle buildings , people anything when you are out and about.

silver70
30-05-2014, 12:50 PM
Thanks caroline! Good advice!

Tabby66
30-05-2014, 06:42 PM
I always have a sketch book and pencils with me!!!!

Sometimes, I just capture ideas in the briefest detail, but enough to jog my memory, sometimes I do more detailed sketches, or play around with a sketch or parts of it. I do tend to sketch a detailed design if it is needed, and I will increase or decrease the size on the photocopier. I trace a final copy and transfer this to the metal with a scribe, so that I have a permanent line to work to.

If the design is using a stone, I make sure that is drawn to size, with allowance for the setting and then the rest of the design is drawn to scale around the stone. If doing bespoke commissions for customers, I ensure that the produced piece can be lain exactly over the original, agreed design,......reduces need for debate!!

For rings, settings, fractions of mm's can matter, then it's down to callipers, rulers, vernier,....an awful lot of careful marking out, measuring checking, rechecking....

If I'm going somewhere of interest, I often take a camera with me, to capture images quickly to potentially use in designs at a later date......

(Very interesting thread!!)

Spectra
30-05-2014, 08:14 PM
I tend to trace and use a scribe too Tabby.I seem to pierce much better,straighter and accurately that way,as opposed to when sticking a design to the sheet

Wendy Moriarty
30-05-2014, 11:26 PM
The course I did was a 2 year btec and covered design, we did have some lessons and exercises in sketching, some fun, some hard. I have to say my lack of drawing ability didn't hinder me, just embarrassed me, and I never felt judged on my sketching ability only my designs, I think as long as your design can be understood and envisaged you will be fine. We did have to produce some working drawings which have to be exact size and dimensions and shown from front, back, side, top, these are my least favourite, but even I managed to produce one set I'd be proud to show.(a working drawing holds all the information needed to make an exact other piece) I loved my time at college and I was the oldest in our class, some of the research and written work was a bit of a shock to the system at first, I had been a mum for so long and not done any studying for 15 or more years (I did English and maths at an open learning centre when my kids were babies, because they had a free crèche, 3 babies in 3 years I would have studied anything just for the break)would love to do more courses but can't afford to at the present. Good luck I'm sure you will love your course
Wendy

silver70
31-05-2014, 01:27 PM
The course I did was a 2 year btec and covered design, we did have some lessons and exercises in sketching, some fun, some hard. I have to say my lack of drawing ability didn't hinder me, just embarrassed me, and I never felt judged on my sketching ability only my designs, I think as long as your design can be understood and envisaged you will be fine. We did have to produce some working drawings which have to be exact size and dimensions and shown from front, back, side, top, these are my least favourite, but even I managed to produce one set I'd be proud to show.(a working drawing holds all the information needed to make an exact other piece) I loved my time at college and I was the oldest in our class, some of the research and written work was a bit of a shock to the system at first, I had been a mum for so long and not done any studying for 15 or more years (I did English and maths at an open learning centre when my kids were babies, because they had a free crèche, 3 babies in 3 years I would have studied anything just for the break)would love to do more courses but can't afford to at the present. Good luck I'm sure you will love your course
Wendy

Thank you - it is a BTEC I am doing too level 3 - thanks for the heads up - I hope I will be able to practice over the summer - at least the basic shapes etc.