Second finished piece

Manufacture of Second Piece

First I pierced out the pattern on a flat plate.

I then enamelled the piece as shown here. After filing off the excess enamel, the piece was fired again to create a shine.

I then made a frame for the piece out of long flat plate, which I bent into the correct shape.

I then added the supporting wires which were soldered into grooves that I made in the frame. This process was repeated for all 15 sections of the neck piece.

Finally I made the box clasp which is in the same shape as the other pieces.

To attach the pieces I have woven silk into this pattern, which I have woven through the individual pieces.

Second Piece Inspired by Tibet

First I considered making a pattern out of the petals of the lotus flower. I wanted to create the same feeling of the three-dimensional flower on a two-dimensional surface. I also liked the style of the pattern which I created as it had an organic feel.
I played with the idea of making the piece out of hollow construction to create the petal shapes as opposed to keeping the pattern in a two-dimensional form. One of the ideas I had was to have the shapes crossing in an organic fashion over the shoulder. This idea later influenced my final piece.

This thought lead to the idea of putting the pieces together to use the two-dimensional pattern with the three-dimensional form.

I also wanted to add colour to my piece as colour is very important to the symbolism of the lotus in Tibetan culture. This idea led to the use of enamel to create the patterns I was previously working with.

I found that the “plique-a-jour” style of enamelling suited the style I wanted to achieve and was also technically challenging. I decided to use “pilque-a-jour” enamel discs and to put them into different configurations so as to keep the piece aesthetically light.


This thought process resulting in me finding an aesthetically pleasing design using the techniques and ideas that I had previously decided upon as well as keeping the style of the piece in tune with my previous work.

I finally decided to have the separate enamel pieces overlapping each other so that the “plique-a-jour” enamelling was shown off to its best advantage. The over-the-shoulder idea was inspired during the design process and helps to show off the movement in the piece. This became the final design.

Inspiration

The lotus represents wisdom and compassion in the Buddhist faith. These two qualities represent the essence of Buddhism.

The lotus grows in many different colour varieties and this, along with the varying stages of growth, represents the different aspects of the Buddhist faith. One lotus analogy is where a man is seen as a being that is born in the stagnant ponds of the world there he grows and blossoms in the air above the surface of the water just as a lotus does. This shows the Buddhist idea of perfecting oneself over time.
The Dalai Lama himself is referred to as the "Lord of the White Lotus" which represents the spiritual perfection of the Buddha and his followers. Even the eight petals found on a lotus flower refer to the eightfold path to perfection practiced by Buddhists.


Levenson, C. 1996. Symbols of Tibetan Buddhism. Casanova: Editions Assouline

Photos of finished piece.

Manufacture of first piece

The manufacture process.

First I made a plate which I domed.

Then I pierced an oval into the dome.

I then made a second dome, which I also pierced for the top section.

I soldered this on to the bottom dome using wires on the underside so as to minimise the solder required.

I then cut the dome section out and finished off the ends of the top dome.

I then cut the central dome out of a solid piece of metal so that there would be no solder joints and it would be strong enough to support the weight of the piece.

Then I pierced out the gallery and made a groove in the oval dome so that the ribbon, which would run through it, would have space to fit inside the piece.

This piece was then soldered in and a back plate was made.

The metal ribbons were also soldered on.

Once the piece was manufactured it was decided that the ribbons no longer added to the design and after trying other techniques to make and attach them it was decide to leave them off completely. I then incorporated  the ribbons into the design on the back plate, which would cover the ends of the cotton.

I then added the cotton to the piece and riveted the back plate onto the piece.