How, when, why and by whom the bodyadornment will be worn are the firstconsiderations when designing.Considerations of size, scale, types ofmaterials and function will all beaffected by the answers to thosequestions. If the work is commissioned,then some, if not all, of these decisionswill be clear. However, if the project isself-generated, these answers mayemerge as research is being done, andone’s own personal creativity will have abearing upon the areas explored. Thechapter on findings later in the book willhelp you when considering function,while the types of materials and methodsyou use in bringing a piece together allcontribute to the end result.

Contemporary-art body adornmenthas become very dynamic, experimentaland thought-provoking; questioning itsrelationship to the wearer, it is moreabout theatre or sculpture than function.But if you wish to make something to beworn, whatever the occasion, thenfunction cannot be ignored.

Clay is hard but brittle, so it needs tobe shaped into a form which hasstrength (i.e. a tube or a sphere), andshould be thick enough to withstandknocks or else surrounded by a metalfinding to protect it. If the form is smalland strong enough (e.g. a small bead),

then a lower earthenware firing can beused. The Egyptians made very low-fired,Egyptian-paste amulets which havesurvived for thousands of years. Highfiring and the use of glaze will give apiece strength, although, as with anyceramics, breakage may occur if it isdropped onto a hard surface.

Holes should not be too near the edgeof a piece, and should be made with asuitable tool when the piece isleatherhard in case cracks appear duringmaking or drying that will be a weakspot when the piece is worn.

Shrinkage must always be taken into consideration. Clay shrinks duringdrying and firing, sometimes by asmuch as 16% (although 10–12% ismore normal), so it is best to buy ormake findings only after the ceramicpart of the piece has had its final firing,or to take this shrinkage into accountwhen buying or making findings. It isalways better to make more ceramicelements than you need for the design,to allow for breakage or disappointingresults from the firing.

When first making jewellery, you may find it easier to copy historic orcontemporary pieces, making variationson a theme. Whilst being influenced bythe work of others, the pieces made willnevertheless always have something of

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Chapter 1

Design considerations for jewellery

the maker in them, and will rarely beexact replicas. However, the moreadventurous or experienced may wish tofind a more individual style and to startdesigning one-off pieces. So here are someof the things to consider when designing.

Ideas do not come out of the blue; theyare developed from visual, contextual and material-sampling research. Byresearching other makers (contextualresearch), developing the ability to lookand see opportunities for design ideaswherever you are, collecting images and materials (visual research), andexperimenting with techniques andmaterials, a ‘bank’ of possibilities will beamassed for future use. This is how yourown creative identity or style emerges. Itis important to develop your skills andknowledge of different materials alongsidethe research, or the designs you want tomake will outstrip your ability to makethem. Sometimes, experimenting withmaterials and skills will suggest othercontextual and visual research that youmight not have considered relevant. It isan ongoing, two-way process.

Drawing/visualcommunication for 3D designPhotography, drawing, painting,photocopying, collage and materialssamples are all ways of conveying designideas. Here are some of the considerations,when using sketch/work books or whenmaking a design sheet. Both sketchbooksand design sheets can be produced in avariety of materials and techniques whichmay include drawing, painting, photo-graphy, collage, materials sampling andexperimentation. Sketchbooks should beused to gather visual research and to work

through ideas and design problems. Theyshould be exciting and experimentalalthough some ideas may not be as suc-cessful as others. Design sheets shouldhave visual impact, should communicatethe final ideas – how they work and howthey will be worn on the body and ‘sell theideas’ to a potential buyer.

One approach to a designproject: visual research andimages on a theme Photographic reference books of the kindyou can find in art libraries and goodbookshops can act as source books fordesign and may inspire your own searchfor visual references. The contents ofthese books may be organised intothemes of colour, texture, form and/orstructure, which may highlight the waycontrasts and juxtapositions can eithershock and disturb or be complementaryand soothing.

At first glance topics such as fish,flowers and landscapes are fairly obvious,but if you examine close-ups and otherdetails of these subjects, what begin toemerge are more abstract questions ofcolour, texture, form and structure.

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Inspiration for designing – campervanbodywork. Photo: Lydia Feast.

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Betina’s Rust applied with a spongefirst, then turquoise mix with glaze12. Take off with sponge, appliedmore 12 using toothbrush withBettina’s rust again.

Glaze 16 with Betina’s Rust (15).

Turquoise mixed with 12.

Iron oxide mixed withpainting solution. Appliedusing plastic sheet.

Turquoise mixed with glaze12 plus Betina’s Rust.

Dipped in water. Oil-basedpainting solution with iron oxide.

Dipped in water. Oil-basedpainting solution + iron oxide.

Lydia Feast, test samples and experiments. Photo: Graham Bradbury.

Glaze recipe 12 (oxidised)‘George’s’ 1260°C (2300°F) Matt WhiteFeldspar Potash 1000gChina Clay 500gDolomite 450gWhiting 70g

Glaze recipe 15 (oxidised) *‘Betina’s Rust’ Shiny Rust Glaze with BlackSpeckles where thick 1260°C (2300°F)Potash Feldspar 580gQuartz or Flint 180gBone Ash 80gChina Clay 80gTalc 80gRed Iron Oxide 100g

Glaze recipe 16 (oxidised) *Turquoise 1260°C (2300°F) Feldspar Potash 49gBarium carbonate 27gWhiting 14gBall clay 9gBentonite 1gCopper carbonate 2.5g

* Originally Stephen Murfitt glazes, from The Glaze Book published by Thames &Hudson, 2002.

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Lydia Feast, design sheet. Photo: Graham Bradbury.

Lydia Feast, jewellery maquettes. Top three: stoneware-fired fragments with oxide and Lydia’sglazes No. 12, 15 and 16, and found cotton-covered buttons with rusty washer and rusty ironwire. Bottom four maquettes: porcelain buttons, blue enamelled copper buttons with rusty ironwire and sheet fragments. Photo: Graham Bradbury.

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Lydia Feast, neckpiece maquettes, 2008. Rusty iron wire and fragments with oxidised copperelement formed and soldered, rusty washers, buff stoneware-fired tube and fragment with turquiosestoneware glaze and iron oxide, cotton crocheted tape and found cotton-covered buttons. Photo: Graham Bradbury.

Other, less obvious subjects can befound by looking at details of buildings,distressed surfaces, lines, crosses orcircles found in the environment. Almostanything you find of interest can bedeveloped into a theme. By starting toexplore such themes, you may start todevelop surprising ideas.

Lydia Feast started designing for herbody adornment pieces using images ofdetails from the bodywork of a campervan. The long thin shapes in the photo(see p.14) became important not only asa flat detail but also as a tube shape, astrong form through which the othermaterials or findings can be threaded.The photo on p.17 shows that Lydiadeveloped the idea further by makingmaquettes, using the found materialsthemselves as part of the design. Thisway of working suggested design ideaswhich could not have developed in anyother way. The twists in the reclaimedwire (shown on p.17) could not havebeen thought of unless the foundmaterials themselves had been used inthe designing process.

Testing with clay types, textures and glazes is also part of the designingprocess, and in the photo on p.15 anumber of tests by Lydia Feast can beseen to achieve qualities she has seen inthe bodywork images and the foundpieces of rusty metal.

Drawings of different options andideas help the development of theproject: it is possible to work out manyvisual and practical problems throughdrawing alone, without having to makeall the various permutations.

Experiments with materials samples,photocopying and art materials enablethe realisation of new ideas developedfrom photographic visual research. This

materials-handling and other 2D workmay lead to more photography as theideas develop. Also, the project is furtherinformed by visits to good libraries,museums and galleries, to carry outmore research into those contemporaryand historic makers whose work echoesthe qualities being explored.

Materials-handling experiments maysuggest new ways of manipulating theclay, which can be made to mimicother media. Practical and design ideas can be worked out on paper, some being discarded and some furtherdeveloped, so that only the better onesare actually made.

Another approach todesign: A techniques-ledprojectThe manipulation of selected materialsby cutting, joining and rejoining can freeup the designing and thought processesand promote new ideas. The materials-handling experiments will begin tobecome abstract, being partly about thequalities of the materials used and partlyabout jewellery. Collections of materialsnot usually considered for jewellery, bothfound and bought, can be a good startingpoint for jewellery design. Materials likecoloured or white paper, card, plastic,fabric, newspaper, yarns, paints, crayons,photocopies, found materials like cocktail sticks, drinking straws, electricalwire, buttons, packaging materials,deconstructed urban artefacts found inskips, etc. can inspire a design. Collage,paint and drawing techniques can beused to explore possibilities as well as themanipulation of materials.

Making maquettes or models out ofthese materials may free up your

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thinking and suggest solutions whichcould then be brought into clay.Surfaces and forms can be re-created orreinvented in clay, assuming a kind offossil-like permanence when fired. Foundor made textures can be pressed into theclay and moulds could be made fromcertain objects. Clay can be worked inthe same way as other materials, i.e.torn, cut and rolled, but will bring itsown character to the pieces made.

Selecting from the following list ofmaterials-handling descriptions mayinspire you to make: you can rip, cut,bind, tear, fold, roll, link, tie, bolt, wrap,knot, plait, twist, weave, bundle, stitch,bend, pin, layer, pile, gather or cluster.

When these experiments are used toinstigate design work, you will find you

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ABOVE Joy Bosworth, paper and clay samplesshowing manipulation of materials. Photo: Dan Bosworth.

Joy Bosworth, impressions in clay made byrope and fern. Photo: Dan Bosworth.

are able to make body-adornment pieceswhich have a fresh look. Careful materials-handling skills, rather than the inherentvalue of the materials used, are whatgive these pieces their precious quality.

Emma Whitney, inspired by thenatural decay and surface qualities onancient buildings or unwanted objects,reproduces these surfaces in her beau-tiful objects. She has made the broochabove by bringing together layers ofheat-coloured and patinated metalwith a porcelain fragment. The wireswhich hold the piece together areattached to the porcelain fragment

with an electroplating technique,which leaves an encrustation of copperon the back and around the edge of theporcelain. She used this technique,which is more in keeping with thepiece, as opposed to the more conven-tional ways of fabricating a bezel or aclaw setting.

Ellen Ingram’s stunning neckpiece(opposite) was inspired by the word‘cluster’, and brings together manyelements made from silver and porce-lain, cleverly exploiting and contrastingthe different qualities of the metal and porcelain.

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Emma Whitney, brooch, 2009. Porcelain fragment with layers of heat-coloured and patinatedmetal. 70 x 60 mm (23⁄4 x 23⁄8 in.). Photo: Dan Bosworth.

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Ellen Ingram, Cluster neckpiece, 2009. Porcelain with silver-plated copper and silver wire.Torque: 400 mm (153⁄4 in.), cluster: 140 x 100 mm (51⁄2 x 4 in.). Photo: Dan Bosworth.