paper doilies.thumbtacks. sigh.

seesaw designs

Hatched

Stephanie Simek





resin covered quail egg, 23k gold leaf inlay. love it.


http://www.oyemodern.com/necklaces/gold-lined-quail-egg-by-stephanie-simek/prod_389.html

Old as New

Over the summer break, I've re-visited some old pieces and given them a new look in terms of surface and use. A few subtle changes can shed an object into a whole new light.




Twig Ring, from Wilberforce series, originally taken through a dipping process to deepen and highlight parts of the silver...


...now heat-treated white, said to look more like bones than twigs. It has been converted to a pendant, simply hung on knotted cotton thread to not detract focus from the central piece and to keep an organic feel.




Other pieces I've made over recently are my ready-to-wear kite tail inspired bow ring and bangle, transitioned from the cover piece made last semester:

Original cover piece, inspired by Roksanda Ilincic and kite tails..




Transitioned into Ready To Wear :hand forged, heat-treated white silver bangle and ring with organza kite-tail bows









I scored these flash pics while collaborating with other fashion and photog students for an end of year shoot. Lucky I brought some of my own pieces along to snap.







Photography - Adrian Mansueto

Threads - Erin Boubli

Location - Raffles Design College studio, North Sydney


Makeover: I replaced the frayed edge for a more tailored take on the over-sized bow. Shame I haven't got these remakes photographed so nicely. Good shots make all the difference.

Blessed & Wed

I recently had the pleasure of being in the presence of true love this past 29th of December and the honour of making the groom's ring and the bride's big black bow. My dear friend Kesh and her husband Tim held their reception at Oxford Street's low key, classy pizza joint, Love Supreme, Sydney. I can easily say it was the most laid-back enjoyable wedding, with great food, including a massive stack of Rocky Road as their wedding cake. Congrats guys! X




Tim wanted a more rustic wedding band and so it felt strange to let solder marks be solder marks and lines be lines. I sanded it up only using the coarsest grade of sandpaper and groom was happy.







Kesh wanted an over-sized black bow as a headpiece that matched black zipper heels. I used a fine black velveteen fabric and simple clip. The wedding shoot is also featured on OnceWed , a site that even makes the 'never planned my dream wedding at the age of 12' kind of girl sit up and take notice.





Dress – Lorraine Bryce

Kesh’s shoes: Juicy Couture

Kesh’s Bow and Tim’s ring: Andrea Santoso

Tim’s suit – We Rob Banks

Tim’s shoes: St&ard

Reception venue - Love Supreme

Photographer: Jonas Peterson (SERIOUSLY INCREDIBLE PHOTOGRAPHER! Full shoot on this link)

Shoot Location: Centennial Park and Love Supreme, Sydney

Shakespeare of paper

Or at least Shakespeare I can understand. I first came across Rob Ryan's amazing work in my beloved Frankie magazine, the poster now hangs on my studio wall. Now everytime I see a new piece of his, I gush at the whimsy that is so intricately hand-cut out of each paper piece. Ryan has had great success, transitioning original paper cut pieces to fashion, laser-cut editions and now has worked with Urban Outfitters to produce his own edition of a Lomo camera.
Ryan's pieces seem to inspire my own pieces in that I wish to create that same warm surrealism in my own work that seems to resonate from his. I've also always appreciated fine and delicate work, that takes patience that is hard to come by in our fast-paced world. Makes me want to go saw-pierce a paper doily out of metal...I'm workin' on it.
One day I plan to own a Ryan piece. The only problem is choosing which one I guess.







http://rob-ryan.blogspot.com/

Laced.

Lace ring, silver nickel

After many broken saw-blades later and washing the nickel filings out of cuts on my hand, I think yes, next time I'll keep a record of how many hours, cuts and broken blades it takes me to saw-pierce a length of metal into lace. Though it was very much worth it and I am happy with the result. This piece was inspired by my childhood and the frilly, lacy, puffy meringue sleeve party dresses I adored in my hey-day as little girl. I finished off to a high shine as that was the sort of thing I loved and marveled at as a child and would have definitely considered it princess couture!

a close up..

As the lace saw-piercing gave the ring all its detail, I want the form and line to quite simple, and resemble the way real fabric lace falls and tumbles.

A Hunter's Thistle

My latest work has begun with a beautifully dangerous, dried thistle, found in the terrain of the Hunter Valley. It's thorns cause much injury to those that try to break through its harsh exterior, proving well as a defense mechanism that protects its precious seeds inside, that rest on silken beds. I have taken these thistle defenses and interpreted them into a metaphor for the fragility of the human heart, and our attempts to often guard its inner contents so closely, we can set up such painful defenses, potentially hurting those that may try to get through. More so, we tend to defend and protect our own heart from ourselves, we can become our own worst enemy.

This is a picture of the delicate framework of the the inside of the thistle. It appears almost vein-like.

I managed to also cut-off individual thistle thorns and get them cast in silver. It was exciting to see how every single little beautiful detail of the lines and crevices on the surface have come out perfectly.

I took these cast thorns and soldered them into a silver, heat-treated white ring. Inverting the thistles to make them appear more floral rather than like thorns, I wanted to convey the message that even the most painful ordeals of life can become a hopeful, beautiful occurrence.

Painful Beauty, silver, cast thistle thorns

Here's a close up of the ring on the body..






I took another cast thistle thorn and placed it inside the vessel of the thistle head, in the place of a natural one. By changing the material, I feel I have changed the context of a dry, harsh element of a thistle, into a beautiful, precious and valued object.

Vessel, dried thistle, cast thistle thorn

The thistle as vessel, houses a heart-shaped locket, that in turn holds the seeds that were enclosed in the thistle head.


The heart locket can be worn on its own..

or can slot into the thistle vessel and is worn as a unit...

I cut another section of thistle to set in a bezel of a silver nickel ring.

Emotional Armour, dried thistle, silver nickel

I cut out the bottom of the ring to expose the thistle's soft underbelly, so the wearer has access feel the silky underside.

On the body..

I really enjoyed working on these pieces and would like to develop it further. I think one of the great things about working with objects from nature is that they each have their own individual characteristics in terms of their material and it is always new to discover how to work with what they are. In this series in particular, the thistle's harsh but delicately brittle nature resulted in having to handle the material in such a way as to not break the thistle and to not be hurt by it at the same time. Perhaps another metaphor that strengthens the work's overall concept.