Louis Osman

While scrolling through the exhibition, I was immediately drawn to Louis Osman’s sketches of his silver goblets. My eye was captured by the wonderful colour contrast between the white soft pastels he has used against the brown paper background. The designs are then brought to life by the dark charcoal or soft pastel shading. The realised design is just as captivating with Osman’s beautifully textured metal and both the contrasting shapes and colours.

I also loved Louisa Osman’s ‘Architectural Heritage Medal’. Again, I was drawn to the piece by the sensitive soft pastel sketches, this is a technique of design drawing I would like to try because of the charming and detailed finish it achieves. The actual piece is interesting as well because of the bronze casting method which makes the piece fell almost ancient.

Angela Cork

I love Angela Cork’s rosewater dish because its visible link to her research. The deliberate folds in her metalwork clearly show her interest in her subject of inspiration. The choice of boat sails is an intriguing subject due to their ever changing form. This is an area I am  interested in, the concept of jewellery or silversmithing appearing to change depending on the viewpoint.

Theresa Nguyen

I was fascinated by Theresa Nguyen’s work because of it’s relevance to the form and nature brief for this course. The final form is so true to life that it almost looks as if it has been cast, but the artist has achieved this look by folding and textured hammering. I also love the tactile nature of this piece, the folds in the leaves give it a sense of movement, making me want to hold the piece and fully understand its form.

Junko Mori

Mori’s ‘British Hedgerow Cups’ are a beautiful representation of the interesting form found in the countryside. The pieces perfectly illustrate the seed pods and plants that make up hedgerows and the individual handmade punches are a playful way of showing  this. I was also drawn to these designs as chasing is a technique I’m really interested in learning about as I’d love to be able to transfer illustration I’ve done onto metal in some way.

For my final pieces I’ve designed a hexagonal vase with six petal like elements with have hexagonal openwork. I’ve fixed each petal at the base of the vase and about a fifth of the way up so they fall away from the main structure. I like the form of this design and I think the open work would suit a piece of silverware. My second piece is a hexagonal bowl with similar hexagonal openwork on one side carried through from my research. I’d like to develop this piece further, perhaps incorporating my idea to sandblast the reverse of the pattern onto the other side of the bowl.

Both designs were created using the rail revolve and unroll surface commands on Rhino 6. I struggled to print the vase the correct size so I had to scale it up and create my own net. I had to modify the shape due to the measurements not being exact but I still think the final piece turned out well.

Following my research on the geometric shapes surrounding bees, I began to construct hexagonal card sculptures. I tried to incorporate the beehive design into the forms I made that were more organic and I was interested in piercing on some pf my designs. After piercing a hexagonal pattern onto some card, the cut outs I was left with were intriguing and I wanted to do something with them. I took the 3D hexagon shape I folded and created a vessel and stuck some cut out hexagons on the surface, I think the design could be effective if sandblasted, leaving a textured beehive pattern on a vessel.

My final designs for the form and facet brief are a pair of silver goblets and a silver plate with a condiment bowl inspired by the hexagonal shapes found in beehives. Each piece will have a hammered finish with a high polish and are designed to be bought as a light hearted ‘wine and dine’ set. The plate has a dip in the centre to allow the small accompanying bowl of sit supported in the middle.

Gilbert Riedelbauch is a German designer who combines practical silversmithing techniques with modern digital design methods like auto cad. His combined use of digital and traditional making allows him to edit and view his designs before realising them as a final piece of metalwork, saving time and materials. I love Riedelbauch’s minimal style of working, the simple scores he makes in his work lead the eye around the piece and that, combined with bold colour choices, makes for a visually stunning end result.

Ellys May Woods is a recent graduate from the Glasgow School of Art and is heavily influenced by the minimalist modern architecture of Scotland. She models her designs on the interesting shapes created by the bridges crossing the Firth of Forth, which change depending on the viewpoint. Her combination of contrasting colours and clean cut, geometric folds in her metalwork allows her to achieve a sculptural and minimalistic aesthetic in her pieces.

Based in London, Paul Wells is renowned for his use of scoring and folding methods in his jewellery and silverware. He is responsible for the creation of curved scores in his metal, a technique which allows the metal to be folded in beautifully unusual ways. I particularly love Wells’ insect collection (right) which explores the folds of the natural world. The intricate curves and striking patinations on the pieces make for a visually engaging series of work.

I decided to focus my form and facet research on the geometric shapes surrounding bees. I’ve tried to incorporate the hexagon shape that makes up a beehive into each of my designs. I made some 3D card models and photographed the interesting shadows they made on the reverse of the paper. I also experimented with lino cutting which gave interesting silhouette like prints. I did some rough sketches of two honeycomb inspired goblets and rendered them along with a hexagonal plate.

  My designs looked much more finished after they’d been rendered and I could better visualise what they might look like in real life if I were to develop them further. I’ve been working with the hexagon shape to relate to my form and facet research where I’ve been looking at the geometric shapes surrounding bees. I’ve not quite got to grips with the lighting aspect of rendering so I’d like to improve theist make my designs look more lifelike.

I really enjoyed using the revolve and rail revolve commands to create vessels as I found it gave me more creative freedom to come up with interesting outlines which I could play with to achieve different designs.