AugA: Ellen

Silver Curled Bangle with 18kt gold detail

ELLEN MONAGHAN JEWELLERY DESIGN

Ellen Monaghan is a designer Goldsmith based in London. She

uses the city as her inspiration with bold lines and graphic forms combining to create unique pieces.

Ellen uses traditional forging and fabrication techniques with an intuitive approach to the design process, adding colour with gemstones that highlight design elements.

Find out what Ellen has been up to recently on her blog ellenmonaghan.net or facebook page.

THE PROJECTS

Collaborative Project 3: Identity Swap

Thinking about the characteristics within Rebeccas work...

Some ideas of how to proceed and techniques to try out.

Punching and drilling in to a piece of Silver sheet...

After hammering and cutting it.

Handmade rings of Silver wire which I then melted and fused together:

After hammering the fused rings.

These are a couple of ways I am trying to recreate a sense of Rebeccas fragile looking structures. I think the fused rings work well so will try and develop this further. I also want to add an element of playfulness, perhaps by trapping something behind or within whatever structure I end up with.

To be continued...

Within Rebecca's work there is usually a strong line from which the rest of the piece emanates. With this is mind I made a frame work that I could use to contain the fused rings.

A selection of the different thickness of wires I used to create the loops.

The fused wires before hammering.

Once hammered I soldered within the frame.

I then hammered in to a round bracelet, overlapping the ends.

I hammered the sides so that they formed a curve, this also distorted the circular shape of the bracelet which added a quirkier look, a bit more light hearted.

At this stage I thought it needed a little extra something so was trying to imagine how Rebecca would proceed. I decided that she would try out different ways of embellishing, perhaps try different materials. I considered adding some beads for colour but found it looked too twee.

I considered wrapping threads or ribbons between the fused rings but decided this didn't add anything to the piece.

I decided to add some cold enamel to the piece to highlight areas, first in cream...

And then in green!

Collaborative Project 2: Rings


To combat the fact I don't have the right tools for working with wax I try melting it and imprinting in to it.

I like the little droplets so start melting them together to form a line, then realise I may be able to work upwards with them as well as along a flat surface.

A finished thing? Time to do another, back to the flat piece...

I cut in to the block of wax to get some different shapes and texture.

Another finished thing - I'm not sure which one to give away to Rebecca so I put them each in a box that looks the same and mix them up, I'll wait until I have Rebecca's piece before I look to see which one I am left with.

I enjoyed this part of the project much more than last time, perhaps as we have done one Collaborative Project before, I understand that at this stage it does not really matter too much what is made as it changes so much through the following stages. Over all I am excited to see what happens to them and can't wait to see Rebecca's piece!
The next stage will be the tricky one I think, trying to make two very different pieces fit together...
Ellen. 19th January 2012

STAGE 2...

So I have Rebecca's piece and have got the piece I left myself(!) cast in to silver. Here are some images while I think about what to do with them. I have to some how make these 2 combine in to a set of 2 rings!

Rebecca's piece.

My wax broke in to 2 pieces, so now I have 3!

Rebecca's piece hooks on to mine quite nicely...

Both these pieces look quite organic in different ways.

Just give me a minute while have a play...

8th February 2012
Ellen Monaghan

This is what happened...

I call it Ring Evolution: Step 2.
Ellen 09.02.2012

Stage 3:

A ring made to be worn next to one that questions wearability.

I just couldn't work out how to wear it!

I begin to think that perhaps this is not meant to be worn, and how to incorporate a feature that suggests it should be..

I had been warned by Rebecca that there are some technical issues relating to the soldering of silver to the brass. I have to say I wasn't looking forward to working with brass, this being the first time since college I have worked with it, and my time as a Goldsmith since making me itch when the B word is even mentioned!
It does add an interesting element to the whole thing though. I am instantly thinking of it less as a commercial piece of jewellery and more as an experiment. In fact, as I can't work out how Rebecca intended this to be worn as a ring I decide to play on this and make it a piece that is nigh on impossible to wear, highlighting this by adding what was a wearable ring into the structure: