do you have any methods or ideas on the mechanics of designing you
would like to mention - goo
Well, no Goo, I wouldn’t - haha. I already wrote today that I don’t
consider myself a jewelry designer in the real sense. All things
being relative - certainly I do it every day. And I’m no design
teacher, either. But since you ask, and this being an educational
site…
Barbara said it quite well the other day, I think. The big picture -
study, learn, look at everything, think about how and why things are
done. That’s a lifetime avocation and you may as well start now.
Since I’m not a teacher, I’ll just write more of a checklist, in a
way.
All things come from nature - human kind is a part of nature, too.
Without a study of nature you will get nowhere fast. That doesn’t
necessarily mean learning botanical names, it means how the nautilus
shell works, and leaves and flowers and crystals and joints and
wings and rocks. Also a lifetime avocation - start today.
The notion that a person can design jewelry without understanding
how it’s made is utter and complete nonsense. If all you understand
is bezels, then that’s all you will use. If you understand pave and
channel setting, then those will be part of your repertoire. And all
the other things about jewelry construction, too. Learn.
This is about being a jewelry designer. If you only make
loop-de-loop silver chains, then you are a loop-de-loop chain maker.
This isn’t an argument about nomenclature, but a complete designer
should be able to design anything. Maybe not the best, maybe not
even very good, but that’s what a designer does.
Jewelry is three dimensional at it’s best, and it is literally about
3d objects. If you are stuck in 2d (sheet metal) then you are only
1/2 a jeweler. There’s plenty of space for sheet metal jewelry, but
that’s still good advise. I’ve heard it estimated that only about
20% of the population can visualize in 3d. Do everything you can to
become part of that 20%.
BTW, bending sheet into a circle does not 3d make. Not in the real
sense.
START FROM THE CENTER Whatever your center is - stone, carving,
visual/mental center, that’s where you start. Always, no exceptions.
To be a complete designer you really need to know your genres -
Edwardian, Victorian, Nouveau, Deco, Arts & Crafts, Modern,
Contemporary. Add to that India, Pakistan, Inuit, Chinese, Japanese,
Hispanic… And what elements each has that defines them. That’s
several books that I won’t write here.
There are many things that are also books - proportion, scale, line,
tone and more - that you can easily get ~from~ books. If you went to
school and they didn’t teach them, get your money back. You need to
understand symmetry even if you don’t use it. In a strange way, the
best assymmetry is based on symmetry.
Hand in had with that, and most important, is your numbers: Odds,
evens, 3’s 6’s and twelves. If you put an odd number of stones
(whatever) around a circle, you will have a stone at the top and a
space at the bottom -most people don’t like that. Try it, you’ll
see. So, you need to have an even number, and the same goes for
ovals. Threes are another thing - triangles instead of squares and
all that. Sixes will give you a stone (or other thing) at north and
south, and a space at east and west, which can be pleasing and
useful. Twelve is the magic, mystical number because it is 2,3,4 and
6, all rolled into one. I won’t go deeper into it and I only mean
magic allegorically. You can play with the concepts of this
paragraph with real objects and it will become more clear than my
writing.
It’s fundamental stuff.
You can make “art-to-wear” as most people understand the term, but
it’s unlikely you’ll make a career of it. Most of that gets
photographed and scrapped, anyway. Jewelry should be comfortable and
easy to wear. Balance, weight, center of gravity, soft edges where
it applies. No “swords” projecting outwards. If a ring a customer
likes “fits like a glove”, it’s sold. Put it on and try to put your
hand in your pocket. If you can’t, you may have made a mistake,
unless it’s a 15 carat stone.
I don’t think any of this writing is news to those here who actually
know much about jewelry making - certainly it’s solid, foundational
stuff and not controversial. I guess I could go on and on, but I
won’t. I have little doubt that others will expand on this - I hope
so. There is one last thing, and that is craftsmaship, whether it’s
yours or for-hire. There’s two parts to it, in this context: First
is that there are actually TWO designs. First is the paper
rendering, or your mental image. The second is what the person at
the bench does with it. Give (generic) you and me the same paper
design and you’ll get two different rings, because we will each
interpret all of the above things differently. But they are the same
design…If I make it, people will look at both and say, “I want
that one…” See below.
Second is that I can turn a mediocre design into something great,
because I am a superior craftsman (that’s not ego, it’s my job). I
can take your silver chain design that you can’t sell and make
people say WOW, just by craftsmanship alone. It’s the realization of
the concept - it’s a piece of jewelry, not a drawing on a piece of
paper. How that concept is execute d is ~most~ important. It’s the
difference between something that lays in the case and something
that says, “Buy me!, buy me!”
OK, last thing that I wrote to Charles A. yesterday. Design is the
breaking up/division of space - I won’t go on like I did with him,
but it’s really just that simple. How that is done can be a
multitude of options - here I’m trying to stay generic. “I have a
band ring that I want to give character, what can I do?” Groove it,
flute it, carve it, inlay it, enamel it, set it will stones, on and
on. And there is a fundamental similarity, often. First you groove
it and you could leave it like that. OR you can enamel the groove.
OR you can inlay the groove. OR you can channel set diamonds into
it. That’s why knowing how jewelry is made is so important, again.
That’s enough - in an hour I’ll think of things I might have
written, but somebody else can do it tomorrow…