We were given the task of designing a piece of jewellery; it could be any type or style that we could think of, and I initially wanted to create an ornate headpiece, necklace or decorative arm replacement.
First, I created some basic shadows and silhouettes on Alchemy and Photoshop; whilst doing this I started to like the idea of a set of ornamental wings or jewellery that was made of non-solid material, so I made a few shadows for those ideas too.
I then took some of the shadows for the headpieces and necklaces and developed them further, cleaning up their design and adding shading and some colour. I found these designs to be relatively boring so I decided to abandon the idea.
Next I decided to develop the decorative arm replacement which was becoming increasingly appealing to me as a possible final design. The patterns were inspired by intricate victorian designs.
To try out some other ideas I designed some jewellery that was made out of non-solid material. I really liked the idea, and was considering it as my final idea along with the arm designs. A League of Legends character design inspired this idea.
Another League of Legends character inspired me to develop some of the different ornamental wing shadows and I immediately chose to go on further with this concept. I really liked the range of ideas I could create using different shapes and materials. My favourite designs where the ones involving crystals.
As my favourite ideas involved crystals I decided to make some varying designs incorporating them to the wings theme. I tried out different shapes, sizes and colours so I could really get an idea of a possible final outcome. My favourite design out of these was the purple crystal design in the top right, so I decided to develop the idea further.
These iterations allowed me to finalise my design by testing out crystal colour, shape, style and size; I decided that I preferred the 'halo' of the purple design but the crystal ring design from the blue and green ideas. I pieced the two together for my model sheet.
It was at this point that I had come up with the idea that different materials and number of crystals would inform other wearers of a person's social status, which made it a bit more interesting for me.
My in-situ piece was based on the idea that an alien politician or royalty is addressing her advisers; I used the stairs as a way to show that she was high up and above others, representing her importance and significance.
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Although I changed my mind a lot throughout this project I really enjoyed the challenge of making jewellery more interesting for me and developing my creative process.