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UNFOLDED PRESSINGS (2018)

Flora and nature is my inspirational source for the shapes, colors and patterns in my work. As a kid I remember spending hours looking in botanical encyclopedias,

searching for the flowers I had seen on walks in the woods with my grandparents. I tried to understand and learn what plants we saw by redrawing the illustrations of plant

species as I discovered them in the encyclopedia.

For my BA collection I again look at 2D botanical images, only this time I am inspired by Ernst Haeckel prints in the book ‘Art Forms in Nature’, or from photographs of exotic

flowers I find on the internet. The 2D interpretation of botanicas is always my first point of reference – I enjoy the visual analysis that others offer of a complex and delicate physical form. This visual analysis is the first stage of my design process but it informs and evolves into a sequence of design and fabrication stages that result in my collection of jewellery.

My sequence is this: after looking I draw my own interpretations on computer with

Rhino software. This graphic transformation begins with a regular symmetrical pattern that I deform by swooping, turning and distorting on the computer. From this

manipulation I select a final pattern that is laser cut into plexiglass. The plexiglass cut-out behaves as press block onto which I press-form titanium and silver sheet.
The press-forming gives a relief of the pattern in the metal sheet, and i cut along the lines of the pattern in metal with a piercing saw.  I push out sections to curl details and petals that grow out of the flat pattern and bring my drawings back to life. The pieces return to the impression of exotic plants, flowers, insects. I return to nature but now in 3D, growing on to the person who wears my jewellery.

This is my design process and I see it as another version of what I did when I was a kid.

Every piece I made went through the same design and fabrication processes but each result is very different. For me the jewellery is an interesting balance of computer drawing and technology with hand-making skills. The sequence of my designing and making can happen with both, and I like that.