ART101

Aspire activity

Azza Fahmy is an Egyptian jeweller who learned her silversmithing skills at a local Egyptian market and built herself up and became international. Her ability to flourish with limited recourses in Egypt is very inspiring. Azza Fahmy’s exquisite jewellery designs have left an indelible mark on the world of art craftsmanship. She built a very diverse list of clients from around the globe including celebrities and royalty. From the beginning she set an important goal for herself: translating the authentic cultures of the Middle East into designs and introducing them to the world. Each piece tells a story and holds meaning and this is what I aspire to. Her ability to seamlessly blend tradition with contemporary flair is truly inspiring. The way she pays homage to Egypt’s rich cultural heritage through filigree work, Arab calligraphy and her dedication to preserving the craftsmanship techniques of the Arab world and her commitment to female empowerment in the jewellery industry are both admirable and motivating. Azza Fahmy’s work serves as a reminder of the power of art to transcend boundaries, tell stories and celebrate cultural diversity.

I chose to draw this traditional Egyptian earring because of the meaning of folkloric art it represents. The quote says el saada aada which translates into happiness is a choice or a habit. The saying truly resonates with me as I believe in it and embody it. I believe that happiness is truly a choice and a mindset. If you constantly think in a negative way you manifest negativity and sadness. If you keep your thoughts positive happiness will come you way.

Mind map for the word strengthen (ART101)

My definition of the world strengthen: To strengthen means to make something stronger or to increase their durability. It comes with lots of learning, experimenting, trials and failures, understanding mistakes and improving them.

Added words

In class we were asked to sit in groups and ask people about other buzz words they think could be added to our mind map. I really enjoyed this task as I got to see how other people interpret my chosen word and how the same word can have so many different meanings.

My 10 artefacts

Mood board

This mood board symbolises rebirth and healing. Rebirth and healing have a transformative power that strengthen a person. When a person undergoes the process of rebirth they leave behind the weight of past traumas or bad experiences, allowing them to move on grow and learn from their experiences, which I believe strengthens them. It allows them to rebuild themselves, become a better and more resilient version of themselves. I chose ancient Egyptian symbolism for rebirth and healing. The snake symbolises rebirth because it sheds its old skin. The goddess Isis with the wings symbolises rebirth and healing because she put back together her husband and revived him after he was cut up into pieces. Ancient Egyptians used to believe that the sun dies every night and is reborn every morning that’s why it’s also a symbol for rebirth. The lotus flower symbolises new beginnings because it can grow in murky water with creates new beauty. I created the mood board on photoshop I cut out the backgrounds of different pictures using the quick selection tool and deleted the backgrounds. I then transformed them, played with their sizes and placement and layered them on top of each other.

Knot necklace

Curly texture earring

I got inspired by my hair and my hair products and made this earring.

I made a golden curl and I imagined some dents in the gold so it looks like a creamy consistency.

My hair and my hair products have always been a very important thing for me.

For a few years I used to get insecure about how the cream feels on my hair, I wouldn’t like anyone to touch me or my hair right after the shower because I wouldn’t want them to feel the cream on my hair.

I designed this earring to remind myself that my hair is beautiful regardless of the consistency and that I should never be insecure about it.

Mama mood board

I got inspired by my mom and I created this celestial mood board. My mom loves astrology. Whenever anything happens in life she links it with the planets and my birth chart. She actually reminds me a lot of the stars and the planets. She has always taught me to reach for the stars and do my best and she has the most beautiful soul on earth. As beautiful as the moon and the stars.

Sea necklace

I got inspired by my comfort place which is the sea. The shape of the necklace reminds me of the waves and I wanted it to be made with blue sapphire stones to resemble the colour of the sea. The drop shaped diamonds are there to give it a more watery look and they resemble the white and of the wave. This necklace is there to always remind me of the love I have for the sea. it’s made into a necklace so I can always carry it close to my heart.

Snake bracelet

This was the first piece of jewellery I got to create. This earring symbolises rebirth and healing. The time where I created this earring was a turning point of my life. It was a point where I felt like everything needs to change. I was surrounded by very toxic people and was living a life that I wasn’t proud of so I felt the need for a rebirth. I needed to restart and rebuild my life. Leave the toxicity behind and focus on my goals and the things that make me happy. I started interning at a jeweller back home and I got to make my design into a real piece of jewellery. This earring means a lot to me as it represents a huge turning point in my life. I decided to get inspired by it and create a bracelet.

First I drew the snake that is in the earring and found a way to make it into a bracelet. The snake is a symbol of rebirth and healing because it sheds its old skin and continues living with a new one. I also chose the stone Lapis like in the earring because ancient Egyptians used it for protection.

Odilon Redon

I got inspired by Redon’s “Guardian of the waters” painting and created this collage. It shows protection from an external power which I wanted to portray in my collage. Seeing it from a religious aspect there is always an external power looking after you which makes me feel safe. Safety gives me strength it shows me I’ll be okay and gives me the power to do whatever I want to put my mind to without feeling to weak or scared because I know that I’ll always be looked after.

Zaha Hadid

I got inspired by the geometrical shapes and decided to experiment with them in photoshop. I used different diamond shapes to create this floral hair clip.

Barbara Paganin

Barbara Paganin is an Italian jewellery designer. She studied jewellery making in Venice. She likes experimenting with different materials to create jewellery because she grew up as a goldsmith and was so used to using precious metals. She sees her work as an extension of herself, as a way to express herself, but will hardly ever tell you what her work is about. She wants everyone to interpret it in their own way.

I got inspired by the lotus flower and created this with clay and wire. It’s two lotus flowers. Here I decided that the interpretation would come from the story behind the lotus flower as it symbolises so many different things. My symbolism is transformation and new beginnings and I’m very excited how people interpret it according to their lives.

Claude Monet

Statement of Intent

Title and theme

Reise a transformative voyage

My Title is Reise which means voyage in German.

I chose to have a German word for my title because Germany has a lot to do with how I see myself. I attended a German school my whole life, watched German cartoons and travelled to Germany every year and it’s the language I feel most comfortable speaking.

I had a very German childhood and that’s why I felt choosing a German word for my final project is most appropriate.

I chose this Title because my theme word is strengthen and I wanted to translate this word into my art through symbolism.

I always like to portray my experiences in my designs through symbolism and when you look at all the designs next to each other it portrays my voyage, where my journey started, what I learned, how I changed and grew through all the experiences that strengthened me.

I felt like creating a hair piece would be the most appropriate way of representing my journey. My hair has taught me a lot. I have very curly hair so it was a long journey trying to love it and take care of it. I experimented with different hair products, tried thousands of hair styles, had a lot of “awkward hair phases” until I figured out how to deal with it.

Throughout the journey I learned to love my unique hair. Now it’s my favourite part of me but it’s a constant reminder that this love didn’t come easy, that I had lots of trials and failures to get to where I am now. All journeys are like that, you live, experience, try, fail and grow. And each and every experience creates a journey to becoming a stronger and better version of you.

I want to work towards producing narrative jewellery, jewellery that tells my story and voyage through symbolism so that other people can interpret the pieces into their own lives and make them tell their stories.

I first started to get into narrative jewellery when I experienced a turning point of my life, I felt the need to document the experiences and milestones, to document my voyage for people to learn from and interpret into their own lives.

I build a connection with jewellery pieces when they have a meaning and tell a story and I want others to build the same connection. So that jewellery isn’t only an accessory but also a piece of you, a piece that tells your story.

Right now I’m in a very transformative phase in my life. It’s feels like a new beginning.

Moving abroad, learning how to live alone, meeting new people and starting a new chapter. All of this is very new and it has been a hard journey trying to adapt to the changes but I feel like it made me grow and learn things even in this short period of time. The start of this journey was a very rocky one, I found out I was on the wrong course, it was hard to make friends and I felt very out of place but I managed to create beauty within a hard time and learn from my experience rather than running away from it.

Influences, research, sources and ideas

I decided to symbolise this experience with a lotus flower.

A lotus flower represents new beginnings and transformation because of their journey. They grow from the muddy bottom of a murky pond to the surface creating new beauty to it. The stem of the lotus flower has to also navigate obstacles such as rocks and debris in the water to reach the surface which represents personal growth by learning how to deal with obstacles and learn from them.

The lotus flower sits beautifully over the water but it didn’t get there easily, it also takes them years to break through the surface, which shows that every journey is hard and everyone goes through hard times and it’s the way you decide to deal with them that makes you grow into the best version of yourself. Every experience strengthens you until you become a beautiful lotus flower.

I went to the Victoria and albert museum to explore more jewellery designers and get inspired. I was fascinated by a brooch designed by a jewellery designer called Barbara paganing. When I first looked at the Brooch I thought it was the shape of lots of lotus flowers next to each other, it looked so pretty and connected with me because of my choice of symbolism. After reading about it I figured out it’s actually the fractal patterns of broccoli cast in dental acrylic. I loved how I interpreted the work so differently just based of what’s going on in my life right now.

I tried researching to find out more about this brooch but I found out that Barbara Paganin hardly ever tells you what her work is about. She wants everyone to interpret it in their own way. I loved that because I wanted to create a piece that tells my story but could be interpreted so differently to tells peoples individual stories.

Going to a museum and seeing such historical and old jewellery as well as modern jewellery showed me how jewellery is more than just an accessory but is actually a tool to portray history. You could really see how jewellery was used for different things, to show wealth and protect from the evil for example. Or to show which family you belong to. It was never just an addition to make an outfit prettier it was always a piece to tell a story, and this is what I want to translate into my designs. Designs that reflect my history.

A yellow object with a black and gray surface

Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Techniques and processes

Starting the course I was very excited to learn how to work with photoshop and I’ve been very proud of the skills I’ve gained from the workshop.

I want to create some of my processes on photoshop. My mood boards and some 2D designs. I also want to challenge myself and try to learn how to use a 3D program to create my designs.

I really enjoyed working with wire at the workshop and wanted to keep practicing these skills. I love how you can use so many different materials with wire like clay and beads for example. I also want to be creative with the materials I use and experiment a lot.

I chose clay as a material to experiment with because it comes from the ground and is then shaped into beautiful shapes. This is a constant reminder that every experience in your journey shapes you into the beautiful person you are.

I also chose to integrate pearls into my design. In many Asian cultures pearls are a symbol of the spiritual journey to perfection.

They are also magical things that appear in such lowly lifeforms as oysters, Oysters secrete layers of materials that also make up their shell and start layering them until it becomes a pearl. This is also a reminder that a journey isn’t always easy and beautiful but that it always creates something beautiful in the end.

My goal is to create a piece that I would wear, so something that isn’t too obvious but still beautiful.

Methods of evaluation

I will write a 500 word evaluation in the end talking about my thought and craft process what I liked doing what was easy and what I struggled in and how I solved the problems I faced during the process.

I will have one on ones with my tutors to receive feedback on my work and to see what I could’ve done differently .

I will reflect on what I have learned in the process of making the final project, what skills I gained, which materials I liked working with the most and which were the most challenging and what I could’ve done differently.

Sources

Barbara Paganin (no date) Galerie Marzee. Available at: https://www.marzee.nl/barbara-paganin/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Museum, V. and A. (no date) Brooch: Barbara Paganin: Barbara Paganin: V&A explore the collections, Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Available at: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1239946/brooch-barbara-paganin/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Facets and settings: Brooches as books, necklaces as novellas (2023) The Magazine Antiques. Available at: https://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/facets-and-settings-brooches-as-books-necklaces-as-novellas/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Admin (2023) The lotus flower: A symbol of personal transformation, Vibrational Empowerment. Available at: https://vibrationalempowerment.co.uk/the-lotus-flower-a-symbol-of-personal-transformation/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Earthmonk (2019) Spiritual development and the lotus flower, Earthmonk. Available at: https://earthmonk.guru/spiritual-development-lotus-flower/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Pearl Symbolism and legends (2022) International Gem Society. Available at: https://www.gemsociety.org/article/history-legend-pearls-gems-yore/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

How do oysters make pearls? (no date) Natural History Museum. Available at: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/quick-questions/how-do-oysters-make-pearls.html (Accessed: 16 November 2023).