Africa

A lady brought me her Sapphire and Diamond pendant... she saw that I work in perpsex(acrylic) and asked me to cut out a back perspex backing and create a new bale. Came out ok.

Float

I used a few strands of fishing nylon to give this acrylic pendant the illusion of floating on the neck. The acrylic is transparent so the skin shows through.

Liquorice Allsorts

The colours of Liquorice Allsorts capture summertime so well!
I decided to make some rings that resemble these well known sweets. Yummy (:

Ice

While making perspex rings, I found the light colours to be quite beautiful.
The ring below uses the transparency between white to show the finger through and create light play within the ring.

Africa Africa Africa

Some Africa pieces I made lately. My Beautiful Homeland...

Race Ring

RACE! Ring.

I finally got this ring out! Its has taken a few months of prototypes until we got the depth of cutting and size of letters right. It is for a guy in a Motor Mechanics Company. He wanted their logo word in a ring, in grey. .

I liked the process, will do more of these, different words, different colours. The grey is a bit dull, but a good start to a new venture!

A nice change to the Acrylic Rings made by me thusfar..

Luminescence

This is a ring that I made for an American exchange student. The colours shine so beautifully! The gem is Moonstone.

Below is another kind of glow.. I used clear Acrylic so as to show the glue bubbles inside. Like underwater.

Stars in Jewellery

Colour Calls..!

I am tired of the monotone of silver, need to play with the palette, splash a little paint onto the white paper. Acrylic suits this perfectly, and laser cutting allows for lots and lots of play. I did some star designs.

Ring: Family Crest

Scorr-A-Breac, the Mac Nicol Family Crest

This is a ring I made for a 21st birthday boy.
His mother works on a game lodge and wanted the silver to be set with wood. When I met her son, I saw he is real waterbaby, spending a lot of time in the sea/river. I said sorry, wood no good. Perspex would handle the water better. Considering that he wants to pass it on to his kids one day, perspex will be more durable and look better than wood after years of use, water or no water. They loved it. She cried when she saw it. Thank you God for making me a jeweller.

From Acrylic to Silver to Gold..

The above ring inspired the one below...

Above is silver and acrylic, whreas below is silver, acrylic and 18ct yellow gold.


I really enjoyed the colour contrast ot the black and the gold... The ring was for Juan Carlos, who lives in Namibia. I made a Flow Ring (Duality) for his wife Maria, and this ring for him. It is black perspex in silver sidebands, with a sliver of 18ct yellow gold down the centre of the ring to 'up the value' and therefore 'preciousness' of the piece.

I call it 'Marriage' because of its purpose, as well as it being the marriage of precious and non-precios materials. Harmony.

'Marriage'
see Maria's ring: http://chantelhere.blogspot.com/2008/04/flow-duality.html

Purple Wave

For who:
This was a ring order by a girl named Carryn, who loves purple and black. Her astrological sign is Pisces and she wanted a wave to cut across the acrylic. This was a challenge but it came out quite well..

We decided to use purple resin in the wave cutaway. Unfortunately the two blue pigments that I have would not mix up the right colour purple. Amazing how one has to have the right shade of blue to add to red so as to achieve an exact shade of purple.. She loved it though, so all is well!

Inspiration for her ring
This came from a previous ring I had made (below), which had stemmed from the boredom of mere layering of colours... (see http://chantelhere.blogspot.com/2008/09/colour-wheel.html)

What a day for a daydream !

These two rings were in response to the glorious day (:

Winters day in London
With this ring I wanted to create a cool feel, like on an icy day.
Clouds reflected against the sea, all grey and white and hazy looking.


I wanted to have a wide ring. As perspex is not available in thicknesses over 3mm, I was forced to look elsewhere for my material. I found PVC piping, which allows for any width in a ring due to the fact that I can cut it off wherever I want. The old piping is specifically an 'off white', a cream colour similar to that of Ivory. The new piping is white, does not have the same 'glow'. The slight amount of yellow in the old piping adds a warmth to the colour that has a richer hue, more friendly on the eye. It polishes up beautifully, like horn.

I sandwiched the PVC between silver sidebands and set it off with a London -Blue Topaz.
The result does somewhat remind me of an icy day in London, or snow capped mountains in Switzerland. Still beautiful, such days. Still good to breathe in the crisp cool air.

Summers day in Africa
This ring had the notion 'Perfect Day' in mind.
A gloriously warm day with bright yellow sun beating down on the face of earth.. a clear sky reflected off of the surface of a calm blue sea, mirror on mirror as it reflects the peace in me.


This transparent blue is the only one that Perspex does thicker than 3mm. It was the perfect blue to use for my perfect sky. The stone is a yellow garnet, deeper and richer than most citrines available. It reminded me of a summers sun and it set the blue of very nicely, with just the right amount of warmth against the cool blue.

What sold this ring to a journalist named Glynis?
Her teenage daughter suffered a car accident that rendered her paralysed. This really touched me as I had suffered my own accident around this time, but I had been luckier than her daughter. When I explained to Glynis that the ring was called, 'Perfect Day', she told me that for this very reason, she must buy the ring for her child.

'I would do anything to give my child a perfect day,' she said.

Underwater Blues

One could associate blue with sky or sea. Below are 2 of my own expressions of these.

Sky on sea
' Blue '
This blue is the only one that comes wider than 3mm under the name Perspex. The brand Lucite, I think, comes in a few other thick colours. It shines when polished with a special translucency, like a rock pool of seawater on a calm clear day, reflecting a cool cloudless sky on its watery face. It is a magical blue.

With this ring I used only an inner sleeve, highly polished so as to allow the reflection of light within the ring as well as off of its surface. Simple and effective, as well as being 'price friendly'.

Sea
' Neptune '
This ring was for Barret. He is a 40 something yr old surfer who wanted a ring with the spirit of the sea. I used blue perspex and sterling silver. I positioned the blue to the side so that I could fashion waves from the wide edge of the ring. I softened all edges and gave the ring a very comfy fit around the finger.

I enjoyed the sculptural aspect of making this ring. This happens when the rough shape has been sawed out and the little needle files take over. This is the part when you really interact with the metal.. it almost tells you how it wants to be worked. This is when its personality comes through, often a name also. It happens with some jewellery pieces more than others. The spirit coming through.

on the Colour Blue:
Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

Little sculptures.

I love making rings that are not round. I like to call these 'sculptural'.

'Skin'

This pink and clear perspex ring blends in with the skin tone. The clear breaks the pink from disappearing against the skin, and the silver creates a gentle highlight - an understated ring that claims a little impact by taking on an abstract shape. The top hangs over the second finger, thereby allowing more surface area for interest.



Perspex is limiting in that it comes in certain thicknesses only. Most colours are available in 3mm and so one has to join layers for a greater width. Initially I joined the layers with Epoxy, but this does not adhere well to perspex. Also, it has a tendancy to discolour with ages, which is not so attractive when using a clear perspex. Durban Plastics recommended a glue called 'Tensol No 12, Mini Fix'. It dries very quickly so you have so work fast! It sticks like a charm though.

Acrylic

This is one of my rings.

Perspex, also known as Acrylic, comes in sheet form and may be worked in a number of ways. Common brands of high-grade acrylic include Polycast, Lucite and Plexiglass. Two disadvantages of acrylic are that it is more expensive than glass, and that exposure to a flame causes melting and burning. Other than these factors, perspex is relatively popular in art and industry. (info taken from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-acrylic.htm)

The above pic is an example of riveting the layers between silver, by columbian jewellers (http://elbeto.com/guepapepa.htm).

Technique:
They rivet their layers whereas I flare an inner sleeve to hold it all together.
The result is that less light shines through the transparent colours and they are therefore not as bright as when riveting. Practically my method takes longer, but is also stronger.
Actually with acrylic, it doesn't matter which method is used due to the hardness of the material.
(With wood, on the other hand, it makes more sense to use an inner sleeve as it is organic and has more of an inclination to split).

Colour
I am drawn to this plastic product for its variety of colours. It is also so easy to work with! It can be sawed and filed, and polished to a high finish that may be likened to the look of polished horn or resin.

These are a few other colour varieties: