Hope is an abstract concept and from the start of my project, I have been thinking how can I represent such a subjective concept in the form of jewellery. At the beginning, I had no idea that where this project will go and I only had some vague ideas about it. First I started to find global signs for hope (which is available in link: https://alajewellerydesign.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/searching-for-signs-and-symboles/ ). After researching I realized that although there are some international signs for hope, they are not very popular among people and can not be easily recognised.
After this research, I have focused on the most popular images that have been used on the web to introduce and represent hope (available link: https://alajewellerydesign.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/how-can-i-represent-the-concept-of-hope-in-my-designs/ ). I found that there are some items that have been used repeatedly to represent hope. Light in the darkness, blue sky, sun, praying hands, candle, flying birds, green plants and flowers were some of them.
After doing interviews with people (available link: https://alajewellerydesign.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/making-models/ ) I found many similarities among some answers but I later realized that the concept of hope is very personal. Different people have different motivations for being hopeful. So my design should be flexible for interpretation and be able to communicate to different people. In this way I have changed my project direction to customizing jewellery and I did some initial sketches and made a model for it (available link: https://alajewellerydesign.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/next-post/ ).
I am still in the process of experiencing and refining my ideas for this project. I have acquired useful information about peoples’ ideas for hope and with developing my designs in the direction of mass-customization, I am trying to develop and complete my designs to find a proper answer for my research question in this project.
Here is a 3D model of my design according to the shape of flowers. This design is made of three pieces. One piece is the ring shape and two other pieces are the shapes of flowers that can be attached to the ring by pins. Customer can choose where to put the flowers on her finger ring. But the most important thing about this ring is its system that is capable to be improved for customization. The flower shapes can be switched with any other shapes that customer can attach to her jewellery. I can determine series of shapes for different taste. For example, they can include dogs, cats, shells, leaves, simple volume shapes like cubes or spheres or any other sign.
Images 1 to 3: The 3D model renders
Images 4 to 6: The 3D printed model. the components of the jewellery can be seen in this images.
I have made some wire models for experiencing material. First, I have made some simple models only by using wire. Then I have added some beads to wires and shaped them again. finally, I have made some paper models of flowers and have used them instead of using beads. The models that I have made are depicted in following images.
Image 1: The wire models that I have made
Image 2: the wire and beads models that I have made
Images 3 to 6: The models that I have made using paper, watercolour and wire
This week I started doing interviews with different people aged from 20-35 about hope to discover peoples’ general comprehension, believes and ideas about hope. I have asked them three main questions.
What make and keep you hopeful in your life?
What objects and items remind you about hope?
What colour do you think that hope is?
Here is a video link that I have prepared from some of my interviews:
After consultation with Julie-Ann I have started to sketch for customizing jewellery. I have started designing series of jewellery that can be changed according to customer’s wishes. In these series of sketches, I have designed a basic not-changeable form and some other elements that can be selected or customized by the customer and be added to the basic form. In this way, customer can also participate in the process of design.
First, I have done some sketching according to my perceptions of floral shapes and plants and using some of my Botanical Garden photographs for inspiration:
Second, I have used me previous drawings to design jewellery. I have focused on some drawings and I have added details to their shapes and changed some compositions. Following images show what I have done.
Third, I have combined the shape of dandelion (as a symbol of message sender for wishes) with another sketch of mine:
Here are my sketches after I have visited Botanical garden. With Maria Hanson suggestion, I started doing some sketches in a creative way. I started sketching simple shapes by looking at the photos that I have taken from Botanical Garden. First, I supposed to do some drawing without looking at the paper while I am drawing. Second, I supposed to sketch without picking up the pen from the paper surface. The following images show the result of my drawings in this way.
Image 1: Doing some drawings without looking at my paper. Here I have used a simple black pen as my drawing tool.
Image 2: Doing some drawings without looking at my paper. Here I have used two different colours of Staedtler fineliners.
Images 3 and 4: Doing some drawings without looking at my paper. Here I have used different colours of Touch sketching markers.
Images 5 and 6: Doing some drawings without picking up the marker from the paper. I have used different colours Staedtler fineliners for image 5 and Touch sketching markers for image 6.
I went to Botanical garden to get inspiration from flowers and plant. I observed flowers, took photographs and did drawings. Here are some of the photographs. Observing flower colours, shapes, the way their petals and leaves are joined together and even my photographs compositions has been significant points for me to consider in my designs and drawings.
Some photos that I have taken in Botanical Garden, Sheffield. Feb.2016
These sketches are based on flowers and blossoms as one of natural elements that represents the meaning of hope. Flowers give tidings of the spring and life. They are beautiful but people should wait for them to bloom and make everywhere beautiful.
Here are my first sketches for the concept of hope. As I mentioned in the previous post, hope is shown like a treasure in most of images. I started by sketching some jewellery that show a treasure.
The other series of my sketches consider black and white to show positive and negative parts of life. I tried to find motivating ways for hope. My believe in these sketches is that life is a mixture of black and white events. When you think it is totally black, just take a look at the other side of events. There are white sides beside black ones.
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