When I started to make jewellery in 2009, I gravitated towards making mixed material jewellery. I was new to jewellery making and was teaching myself to work with materials. I was learning about the properties of each material, colour and finish that will help me put them together. The other reason was that I wanted to use whatever materials that I would have in hand. While my personal style is classic, my design aesthetic is kitschy. Mixing multiple materials and colours in one piece allowed me to harness that aesthetic to its maximum potential. However, I have resorted to making simpler pieces in a single colour or with a single material as seen in this simple beaded necklaces post and my recent Bherunda collection. The only exclusion has been a mixed material jewellery set which combines vintage jewellery components with a hand painted leather focal.
Picture jewellery with vintage components
Inspired by a picture jewellery set at an artisan fair that I visited, I wanted to create picture jewellery with vintage components. I also wanted to bring in the trend of mixing metals and metal tones in the same pieces. In that process I ended up using a lot of findings and components in a new and unique manner.
I have been experimenting with painted leather focals (in tholu bommalata style) and metal frames for some time now. This piece was a little damaged on the side and could not be used in its original form. So I resized and reshaped it to fit into the frame.
A mixed material jewellery set
I have used 10 different types of materials in the necklace not including the variations within each category. They are two different Kashmiri vintage jewellery components made of pot metal, beads of glass (crystal), citrine quartz, plastic and metal, rhinestones, plastic dangles, jewellery findings, artistic wire, and painted leather. Items like the studs were reclaimed from older pieces. There are three metal tones – antique silver, bright gold and rose gold for an exotic look.
Alternate use of findings
Several years ago, there used to be blogposts and tutorials dedicated to the use of jewellery findings in an alternative way. I haven’t seen one in a while maybe because the availability of findings is much higher than what it was 10 years ago. There is a lid for every pot now. But we can still get creative with them.
Look at the picture of the mixed material jewellery set carefully and tell me how many findings have been used in an alternate manner. If are able to list all of the below, then you have great eyesight and observational skills.
Here are the four finding transformations. Check to see if you got all of them.
- Stone hoop earring into a pendant
- Lobster clasps as connectors
- Jumprings as bezel rims to hold the rhinestones
- Earring stopper as beadcaps
The earrings that you see in this post are the second version of the design. The first had orange crystal beads to match the necklace. The necklace was original meant to be worn with a silk saree for a fashion show that I hosted. The night before the show, the saree tore. I was frustrated that I lost an expensive saree and could not wear the look that I put together with a lot of thought. So out went the orange crystals and in came the citrine quartz melons and earring stoppers. Interestingly, I wore a tholu bommalata bib Syamantaka necklace with these earrings. Funny how that came together in the end.
Do tell me in the comments what you think of it.
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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