Pearl Clasp Designs

I have designed a few pearl clasps for my mother and her friends, who are going on a pearl stringing course. These are some of the chosen designs.

Silver and 9ct rose gold clasp with "tongue" mechanism

Silver clasp with simple "push" mechanism.

Seventh Piece Inspired by Tibet

I decided to create a brooch for myself to wear on the night of the final exhibition. I also decided that I wanted to incorporate elements from all my previous pieces into this final piece.

I used the round shape from my first two pieces and the 'Cloisonne' and 'Champleve' enamel techniques from my second piece. The bends in the metal were drawn from my third piece and the wire work was inspired by my fifth piece.

This was the final design that I came up with.

Sixth Piece Inspired by Tibet

For this piece I wanted to redesign my first piece I wanted to make this new piece lighter and to incorporate enamel as my first piece is the only piece in my collection that has no enamel.

I decided that taking the central circle out would make the design more interesting and using the 'plique-a-jour' enamel would lighten it both aesthetically and physically.

I changed the design to make it more symmetrical but then decided against this change as the piece was more interesting hanging at an angle.

This was the final design that I settled on, incorperating red and yellow enamel.

Fifth Piece Inspired by Tibet

I wanted to use the lotus petal in my next piece and I wanted to incorporate enamel that was on a round object as opposed to on a flat shape.

I also wanted to make my piece a very long chain as I was inspired by the rosary worn by Buddhist Tibetans.

This was the method that I wanted to use to connect each section of my piece.

Fourth Piece Inspired by Tibet

I experimented with a piece that is larger on one side than the other but that is still made of thin pieces of silver and is thus very light and in keeping with my earlier pieces.

I also tried to incorporate the use of enamel to create colour on the piece.

I then decided that I would make all the sections into individual links so that there would be no unnecessary additional weight in the piece and in addition this would simplify the design.

These were a few of the link designs that I experimented with.

This was the design that I finally decided on and I then experimented with different styles of enamelling using different colours and techniques.

I liked this pattern as it made use of negative space but having such a large section in the “plique-a-jour” enamelling technique would have made it very weak.

The circles also had nothing to do with my Tibetan inspiration so I changed the pattern to include the lotus petal shape that I have been incorporating into my designs .

Third Piece Inspired by Tibet

I started designing with the idea of creating form out of flat plate. So I used the idea of bending the plate into a form that would be both dynamic and flowing to represent the lotus flower.

This idea lead me to create a kink in the metal that would run over all the separate sections of the piece and by piercing out the middle section I could keep the piece very light and create interest.

I wanted to still make use of enamel so I experimented with different ways of putting the enamel on the piece. I tried using just the ‘plique-a-jour’ technique but this did not give the look I was after.

I tried putting many enamelling techniques together, such as ‘cloisonné’ where small wires are added to the enamel to create patterns, ‘basse taille’ where engraving is added to the underneath of the enamel so that there is more interest and movement in the piece, ‘champleve’ where a border is used to keep the enamel on the piece and finally ‘plique-a-jour’ where the enamel has no backing and resembles stain glass.

This was the final design that I decide on.

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.

First piece inspired by Tibet

These are some of my initial design concepts.

I first thought about doing an earpiece that fits around the back or over the ear. I wanted to use metal and cotton to create the same feel as the head pieces worn by the monks.

I then moved into the idea of using the form but re-interpreting the look and texture of the piece. I made the piece bolder and less haphazard. I played with the idea of using cotton to replicate the soft feeling of the hats which inspired this piece. I found that by sewing the cotton through the metal I could create a very interesting texture.

This style of radiating line is also found in the Tibetan flag.

I used this form to create this round domed design. I wanted real ribbon to hang from it to represent the prayer flags found all over Tibet.

This design changed the real ribbon to metal which has been twisted to imitate ribbon.

 This was the design I decided to manufacture