Final Paisley Earrings

 

Paisley Earrings 

The final look of the paisley earrings after the changes had been made to improve the earrings. From a chandelier earring it had transformed into a stud earring which the post is attached to a lotus petal. 

End of Semester Display

 

Lotus collection

This is what my end of semester submission looked like as an end result. The neck piece consists of the silver lotus pendant that is made up of paisley pattern for the lotus petals and filigree of Mendhi patterns being the spirals and silver balls to create the design for the inner petal, beaded chain in a contemporary Indian jewellery form, beaded flowers for the first half of the chain and the rest goes in simple beading style of just beads colour coordinated on the string.  

The earring is also a simplified silver lotus design with the use of the paisley pattern and spirals and silver balls forming a filigree for the inner pattern and transforming the earring into a stud earring by adding a simple pierced lotus petal as the stud design. 

1st Exhibit presentation

Display

This was my final display for the exhibition that took place on the 14/06/2023. The whiteboard has my splash page stuck to explain my concept being about Mendhi pattern jewellery. 
 

Enameled etched pendant 

This is the enameled copper lotus pendant that has etched spirals underneath the enamel, attached with a silver link chain.

Enameled copper earrings 

Enameled copper earrings that consist of backing enamel to create the colour visible on the earrings. I like how the outcome turned out as it gives the look of a galaxy look. 

Cuff Bracelet

Cuff bracelet that can be used as a stack cuff bracelet. The design is inspired by the Mendhi design that begins from the wrist. 

Wrist Mendhi design

This is a reference to what is explained for the design inspired to create the cuff bracelet.

Paisley Ring

Silver paisley pattern ring with forged silver balls in the center of the paisley wire frame, attached to a twisted band as the shank for the paisley design. 

Paisley Earrings

In silver paisley earrings, the center paisley frame consists of forged silver balls that are flattened and the two side paisley have silver spirals and silver balls soldered to create a design in the paisley wire frame, finally giving a lotus look. 
 

Paisley Earrings: 1st attempt of final design

 

paisley Earrings 

These were the silver, paisley, and filigree earrings produced. It may have been the final outcome at first but once the piece was submitted it felt like it still needed a few changes. Therefore after the first exhibition, it was taken down to make a few adjustments to the piece.

Paisley Earring:Final layout process

Outline look of Paisley Earrings 

A layout of how the final design will look. It has not yet been soldered. The silver balls attached to the end are going to be used as a form of a design for the shepherds hook to be attached to the earring. 

Paisley earrings close to final look

The earring will look something like this with the shepherds hook attached to the piece. Use chain nose pliers to twist the two-side paisley pattern to create three-dimensional depth. Now just to do complete the second earring, clean the earring by filing any solder bits, sandpaper before having to polish and then it is ready.

 

Paisley pattern variations

 

Variations of paisleys with silver balls 

The variations of the paisley pattern being forged with no silver balls inserted, the next two paisleys are seen with forged silver balls but with gaps and some fell off during the forging stage, the last paisley pattern with silver balls was more of a success with the balls staying in place especially during the forging stage. 

Paisley variations with spirals and silver balls 

The paisley has spirals with balls inserted to fill in the gaps and creates more of a three-dimensional depth to the piece. The variations go from left to right where the first two were not much of a success with the spirals. The next two were of the spirals looking better and the balls were in different sizes to fit into the gaps better as for the last paisley, it was a forged design. 

Forged paisley design with spirals and silver balls

The paisley design with spirals and balls has been forged to gain a different look to the design.

Paisley layout design process 

The paisley design process is happening here where I tried laying the design out in front of me to gain an idea of what the lotus design would look like. 

Silver balls

 

Silver balls

The Silver balls need a charcoal block, snippets of silver pieces, and a fine torch. The ball is created by applying flux on the silver and heat applied on the silver eventually creates a silver ball. A trick used to prevent silver from flying all over the charcoal, you create a hole for the metal to maintain the shape and stay in one place. 

Paisley with silver balls

The silver balls are used to create a design in the paisley pattern. 

Paisley Earrings:Silver prep

 

Paisley in silver 

The Paisley pattern has now moved onto the silver works. Paisley pattern made from silver wire, design created using half round pliers for the curves of the design and double round pliers used to create the spirals for the tip of the design. The tips of the wire were forged, then annealed and then bent into the shape that it is in, the annealed again to create the spiral tip for the paisley.

Paisley with spirals in silver 

The spirals made from silver wire have been inserted into the paisley pattern beginning to gain the design process going. 

Paisley Earrings:Prototype in Copper

 

Paisley Design in Copper 

  The Copper paisley pattern has spirals made from copper wire inserted in the paisley to create a Mendhi pattern. It is tricky to get the spirals to fit in the paisley but once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier and quicker to make more range of spirals in different sizes to fit perfectly into the paisley. 

Paisley Earrings:Paisley in Copper

 

Paisley in Copper 

The Paisley patterns are made using copper wire. The shape has been formed using the half round pliers to get the curves and roundness, the chain nose pliers and double round pliers were used to make the tip curve/spiral. The paisley on the right is forged to get more detail visible for the shape and the tip is more curvy rather than it giving a stiff look to the design.

 

Paisley as a lotus in copper 

The paisleys are now being used to form a lotus design made from copper wire.

Paisley Pattern: Prototype process

 

Paisley and spirals made out copper 

The spirals and paisley pattern making process is beginning where the trail and errors are happening of trying to maintain the similarities for the paisley pattern and spirals.

Combining spirals to the paisley pattern

The process of having to combine the spirals to the paisley pattern to create the mendhi pattern look. Beginning to see that the paisley pattern needs more work and the spirals are beginning to keep the same look for each one but need to be in different size ranges. The thickness for both the spirals and paisley needs to be more thinner as the thick wire is not allowing the design outline look appeasing much. 

Manufacturing process 

The making process included 3 pliers which were the flat, double round and chain nose pliers for the spirals. Firstly anneal the wire, then use the double round pliers to get the beginning start of the spiral, hand movement is very important and then continue with the spiral twisting using the flat pliers, you may use the chain nose to flatten the spiral if it begins to move out of shape. This youtube video helped guide me:how to make spirals

For the paisley pattern I used the half round pliers and chain nose pliers to create the shape. 

Paisley Earrings: Metal Prep

Copper melted 

This is the beginning process for the design where the copper metal is put into a crucible to be melted and then poured into an ingot with a bar shape to make wire for the paisley design.

 

Rolled Copper bar

After being melted the metal is then rolled into a thin wire before being pulled into wire to create the paisley.

copper wire 

The copper bar has transformed into wire that has been done through pulling the wire through a plate that has different sizes for the wire thickness and measurements. 

Mendhi Pattern Paisley Earrings:Inspiration

 

The Mendhi Design 

The hands have mendhi design applied on but it the focal point of inspiration taken from this is the lotus.

Paisley Pattern

Paisley pattern is commonly found as a decorative form with a more spiral or curvy tip to the form.The Paisley Pattern gives the look of a lotus leaf look which inspires to transform the lotus flower for the design to look more contemporary in forming it to look like the paisley pattern.

Paisley Pattern drawings

I had then tried drawing the paisley pattern to try in a way to perfect the design by many trial and errors.