Earrings

Here's a couple of pairs of earrings I have recently made. I'm thinking of making more similar and different and trying to sell them online.

Any information from follow bloggers on selling online would be lovely :)

xxx

Goldsmiths Precious Metal Bursary

Back at the beginning of the year, I won a £200 bursary from the Goldsmiths Company. I had to submit a design proposal consisting of three or four pages, detailing how the piece would be made and how much the proposed cost would be. The piece I made was not the one I had originally proposed though.

My idea at the time was to make some shoulder armour and I decided to use my bursary and buy £200 worth of sheet silver.

I would have loved to have made the shoulder parts bigger but I didn't have any extra money to spend at the time. In the future if I were to make something similar, I would use an alternative metal, maybe copper and have it silver plated, or aluminium (which you can't solder but can rivet).

The fur is real rabbit fur (I know some people won't approve) but I like it, it's so bright and soft, and a great contrast to the metal. The chainmail is stainless steel.

I would say to anyone in their final year in a design course that they should apply for the bursary. Even if you're not granted a bursary, it's still a really good experience. If you are chosen, then it's a great thing to add to your CV.

Honours Project

This is me at my degree show, having a little pose with my work.

My honours project was primarily influenced by the designs of the late Alexander McQueen. I admire his uniquely inspirational attitude towards design. In his own words: “I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress”.

I explored ways of combining the contrasting qualities of strength and fragility, using the female form as the setting to create jewellery. The idea of armouring the female, empowering her, but at the same time revealing a softer, more fragile sense of being is the main thread throughout my work.

Using contrasted hard and soft materials such as metal and feathers, or fur, I have created pieces which reflect this ideal.

Photographer : Danielle Wilson
Model : Colette Dryburgh
Design & Styling : Kelly McAllister

Photographer : Bruce Sutherland

Model : Fedosia Murdoch

Designer : Kelly McAllister





It was great fun to make these pieces, and even better to see them worn during the photoshoots! I plan on getting some more amazing photo's done once I've worked on a few more pieces - I have so many ideas!

Thanks for looking xxx