peer case study

CAROL CALLIGARO

Carol was born in Rhodesia in a small town called Fort Victoria in 1974. When she was young they moved around a lot, from Zimbabwe to Carletonville but they hated living there so after three years they moved to Swaziland. Carol was in grade six at the time when she went to boarding school in Barberton in South Africa.

After school Carol worked in a hotel in the Natal midlands for a year as she thought she wanted to go into hotel school.  She then decided to continue with a B Com degree at the University of Pretoria as she did not enjoy hotel school. This lasted two years as she did not like this course either. Carol has always been creative in school and even got accepted to Durban tech to do fashion but decided to go for the B tech as all her friends were doing that.

Carol eventually ended up in London travelling and experiencing life and ended up working in Nando’s head office. Although quite not finding her passion yet Carol was proud she had travelled more than 33 countries already. Carol then returned to SA in 2005. Carol has always wanted to make jewellery as she had a strong passion for gemstones. In 2008 she did a 10 week course with Vassi at CPUT after which she joined the hobby class. After smelting silver for the first time Carol finally knew this was it!!!

It’s been three years down the line and carol has almost finished her course in jewellery design and manufacture and she says she will never look back as she loves everything about it.

Design philosophy:

One of the reasons Carol loves to make jewellery as she loves to make jewellery original, well thought out and comfortable. She believes a good design is a clever design. She wants her pieces to have some conceptual idea behind them. Carol is open to using different materials in her jewellery as well as rough cut stones and crystals.

Currently her theme is jewellery design is Energy. The energy and bond between jewellery and the wearer. The energy of the gemstones used, and the light transmitted by the gemstone. Carol would like to design a range of jewellery on sustainable jewellery but this may require a lot more thinking. In the future carol believes her jewellery will always reflect back to energy.

Influences:

Shapes in nature are a big influence for Carol, particularly spheres and swirls. You can see in the images below how swirls and spheres are used as well as elements of nature such as the tree pendant cut outs. Soft lines are preferred rather than hard lines. Influential designers for carol are Lidia Hirte, as her work with paper is very appealing to her and CPUT based designers Ida Elsje, Phillipa Green and Situ.

Innovation and contribution:

Carol does not yet believe she has made a substantial contribution to the world of design as she has only been in the industry a short while, but she hopes to make some contribution in the near future. She hopes that her first theme on energy will be the start to her contribution. Personally I think that even though Carol may not have contributed to the world of design she has definitely contributed to the world of design at Cput. There as never been a time when carol has been to busy to help someone else, whether being in design or manufacture or even drawing.  Carol wins almost all the awards at the end of each year and there is no one else who deserves it more than her.

Marketing:

 While studying carol has been replying on word of mouth as well as her blog: carolcalligaro.blogspot.com to market herself. Her next year plan is to launch a website and she hopes to sell her jewellery in various shops in cape town and joburg. Carol feels he has a great understanding for the UK market and hopes to sell her jewellery internationally. She will be doing a branding exercise at the end of the year as she would like to make bespoke jewellery under her name and ranged under more trendy brand names.

Materials:

Mostly silver and stones are used for now but in the future she hopes to use anything and everything. Wood in jewellery definitely appeals to carol as well as ceramics. Carol would also like to pursue a use of enamels as she feels it is under used in south African markets.

Techniques:

Carol will be using the techniques she has learnt at CPUT and try explore different techniques. Carol also wants to one day make the most perfect piece of jewellery and then smash it down with a hammer as she is tired of making ‘perfect’ jewellery. Is there really such as thing as perfect jewellery as in the market today making floured stones and mistake pieces are the most beautiful.

 
                                             2nd year 6ring project
All Carols  6 rings were cast made made into the most original and beautiful designs. They defiantely have
elemenst of her passion for swirls in them. Personally my favourate is the one with the pearl in it.




                                                    


i love the back of this pendant.
Carol made use of the back plate
by piercing out a design ( of a tree
as she loves trees) and this
just makes the pendant even more special
as its a detail thats hidden and can only
be seen if turned around. Most
jewellers would just put a full back plate
on and ignore the possibilities that
can be done.
                                                    front of pendant. you can see the use of
                                                    the rough stone and this compliments the
                                                    smooth highly polished silver.




                                                  mass production necklaces
                                          eventhough we are all overloaded with work
                                          Carol somehow find the time to MASS PRODUCE
                                           necklaces for this particular organisation. even on this
                                           many necklaces her quality is unbelieveable.




                                                                    

carol's famous ball pendants carol is known for making the most perfect hollow balls.

she has made so many she is a pro at it.

tree locket

the amount of detail that took place inside and out of

the locket is beautiful. it creates a 3D effect and the

blackening just compliments that.

Local jewellery designers

Gary and chantell

Gary and chantell grew up in the eastern cape South Africa and then moved to KwaZulu Natal. Gary originally studied fine arts and played guitar for bands and before they even got a chance to play music on TV, he took up a career in jewellery.

Chantell travelled Israel for almost ten years before realising that jewellery was her destiny. Once she completed her honours in jewellery , Gary and chantell now work for themselves with the aim of manufacturing ‘wearable Art in the form of jewellery.’
This therefore allows them to combine their previous studies with what they love doing, making jewellery.
It is considered by them to be 'play' - both experimental and Soul.      
                                                                 
Materials they use for their jewellery making is both precious and unusual.
Their work depicts a combination of everything that they are inspired by, around them, a combination of worlds to be worn in remembrance of love and material things.

The images of the jewellery shown here is mostly of their own design, but a few pieces were commissioned by clients. All their jewellery is for sale depending on the availability of the materials. They also design with the client to make up the perfect piece for their customer.

Their whole aim is to inspire the client to wear a style that represents themselves, YOU, your persona. They dare the customer to be true to themselves and their uniqueness.

The couples business name is ‘Wild by design.’ They both use their incredible talent to design from their sole. They have been making jewellery for the past 7 years.
By using both precious and alternate materials they created wearable art. By wearable art they mean small scale sculpture. They understand the diverse world we live in and use jewellery to show that, this creates a variety of designs ion their work.
They explain that jewellery is like a marriage of nature and technology as its worn in celebration of the love of material things.
Chantell explained that she finds their jewellery a mix of materials and techniques therefore it allows then to explore different surface textures and ways jewellery can be worn. They try their best not to let other jewellers or designers influence them as they want to find their own style through colours, shapes, forms, light and both industrial and natural objects. When they find themselves struggling with coming up with designs they come together to brainstorm. They try come together and come up with unique and ‘out of the box’ jewellery that has elements to it that is funky and playful.

Wild by design has recently exhibited at the audi Joburg fashion week designing for Abigail Keats. They sell their jewellery at the Durban Esserwood craft Market on Saturday mornings, and at the Reads Gift Shop in The Zone, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

The couple now live in Durban so Chantell can continue her studies at the Durban university of technology. She is busy with her honours in design and Manufacture.

Personally I find this couple inspiring as they have such a unique approach to their designs. Jewellery to them is not just an object worn on the body, but a work of art.
I can relate to their geometric side of their jewellery as it has a similar feel to the way I like to design.

Materials used include: precious and non precious metals, wood, acrylic, crystal, glass, precious and non precious gemstones, resin, rubber, fossil, ceramic, bead, love and imagination.

 peridot silver

This piece may seem quite complicated to manufacture from the consumers side, but as a manufacturer you can see it was just a solid tapered shank which had the top section piereced out and two stones swiss set on either sides of the shank. Whats nice about this ring is that the shank isn’t solid and you can see your finger while wearing the ring.

the above ring consists of silver and smokey quartz. it seems quite simple to make as its just two sides that are pierced out of plate and textured and then there are four bars rivited to hold the ring together. personally i love these types of rings that are 'open' or have a double shank. ive manufactured quite a few of them, some with bars like in the picture above and some where the shank is filed at an angle at the bottom and soldered together creating a 'v' shape. i find these rings quite funky and modern.

 citrine tourmaline

This ring would be made in the same way as the previously mensioned ring. Carved out of wax then the rectangular setting would be made and soldered ontot he top of the ring and the two side stones are tube set.

pink tourmaline silver

The shape of this ring is very beautiful and unique. The easiest way to make this ring would be to carve it out of wax and cast it, but there are other ways like hollow constructing it but piercing out the two outer sides and then making a boarder to frame these two sides. You could also take a thick solid piece of silver and pierce out the shape of the ring. The stone looks tension set which means that the stone is held by the two outer walls of the shank.

they also manufacture neck pieces, bangles and other types of jewellery and example would be this neck piece consisting of silver, acrylic, nylon and cubics. they have many pieces consisting of various materials which creates a wide range of jewellery and a little bit of something for everyones personal preference.

 

i like how they have explored different metals and materials and explaored different ways of using them for example texturing the metals, it really creates a  personal style which i think it really important.

references
http://www.wildbydesign.co.za/Catalogue/tabid/56/AlbumID/372-67/Default.aspx
ces:
http://www.wildbydesign.co.za/Aboutus/tabid/57/Default.aspx

EMAIL:   info@wildbydesign.co.za
Contact:    076 823 4523 

international jewellery Designer

international jewellery designer
Hadaya Jewellery.

The owner and designer of Hadaya jewellery is Baruch Hadaya.
Hadaya was born in Israel and grew up there, learning the culture and language. Throughout his journey of deciding what to do with his life he ended up having an amazing passion for jewellery designing and manufacturing. It was not easy to make a living from it in the beginning as he did not quite find the gap in the market. Hadaya did not give up though as he believed one day he would be successful.
over the years he designed many different types of jewellery and by asking for peoples opinions on the pieces he gained a knowledge of what most people like and would want to wear. With this knowledge he managed to add something a little extra to find that gap in the market.

Although mainly working in silver, he also offers jewellery hand made in copper and gold to cater for everyone. What makes his jewellery different from anyone else is that he offers personalised hand engraving done by himself. This engraving is done in Hebrew which is what makes it even more special, especially for tourists visiting Israel. This was the gap in the market he needed.

His shop is situated in the middle of the old city of Jerusalem, a very popular tourist destination, which is to his advantage for sales. He also makes so much effort to get to know his customers before they make a sale, I know this because I was a customer when I was there. I spoke to him about myself wanting to go into the jewellery field and he explained how long it took for him to get where it is and how many mistakes he had to make and that was a big eye opener. By speaking and communicating with each individual customer he gathered information over the years to cater for everyone and to come up with the type of jewellery he sells.

He even offers a special that the first person to buy something from his shop will get a 50% discount on the first item sold. People in Israel take this so seriously and almost every night people do an ‘all nighter’ and camp outside his shop to make sure they are the first person there at 5am when he opens. I did this twice, its am amazing experience sitting alone in the old city watching people walk up and down in the early hours to the western wall and watching the sunrise. I still remember seeing his huge smile on his face as it makes him so happy to see customers willing to camp outside his stall to purchase an item at a discount. This to him meant the world as it shows him how much his customers love and want his jewellery.

Although his work is very “commercial” in a way and the designs are not too complicated, they sell really quickly. Personally I think its because of the personalised engraving and also because its in Hebrew. He has a book in his stall with different sayings and prayers for sisters, brothers, friends ect, so everyone can choose their saying that they want at no extra cost.

To me his personalised style would be the hammered texture as almost all of his jewellery has the hammered finish. You can see that his inspiration comes for the Israeli culture and tourist destinations as he caters for tourists mainly. And example of this would be his ring where he pierced out the shape of Jerusalem.

Before I started jewellery I used to think his jewellery was quite pricey but now having studied jewellery for almost three years I understand the amount of labour that’s put into jewellery and the cost of silver and even the amount you would pay an engraver here in cape town. I know see that his jewellery is definitely affordable and I even find it hard to believe he does so well as apparently he’s the only jeweller making the jewellery and doing all the engravings himself. I also don’t know how he manages doing it all alone because he gets so many orders, I thought he actually had the jewellery cast but he says each piece is handmade and unique so I presume over the years he had become extremely fast with manufacturing.

Here are some examples of the type of jewellery he sells: you can see that he has a design style of creating a hammered texture one each piece. You can also see his main theme is Israel and Jerusalem.

Prices are as follows (incl engraving) rings $52, bangles $86 heart pendants $63 mens bangle $200

A lot of South Africans who want similar hadaya looking jewellery come to me to manufacture it as they dont want to have to ship it down and I sell so much of it, especially to shops like the jewish museum. And I can see how they sell so quickly and this has taught me so much about what people want to buy. I can see that people like unusual looking unique jewellery but they prefer to buy something that’s simple and not too unique , something that they know everyone will like and comment on.

Hadaya has the best way to market himself, word of mouth. He is so well known that everyone who goes to Israel knows they have to make a stop at his shop, especially tour groups or Israel programs where students come to Israel for a few months or years at a time.
Even if people haven’t heard of him he has the best position for his shop as he is right by the western wall so people have to actually walk past his shop and there aren’t many shops around so tourist want to buy and his shop stands out as there aren’t any similar shops around him.

overall i feel that Hadaya has done extremely well as he works for himself which puts him under so much pressure to design and manufacture, yet he still has a smile on his face everytime a customer enters his shop.
i find his work methods extremely motivating and i hope i can apply the smae concept when i go into the industry on day.


Bibliography: http://oneofakind-store.com/Yeshiva-in-GoldFilled_c3.htm
http://www.oneofakind.co.il/category.aspx?tid=1

sleek and clean cut design

i came across this image and i thought that although its a very simple design as it has a solid shank, it it so sleek where the piece of the shank wraps around the stone. i love how the setting isnt a complete circle.

this is another piece by the same designer. i love the design of this piece. it almost feels to me that the metal is unwrapping itself around the stone forming the twirly shank.

jewellery designer

i found this jewellery designer Todd Reed who uses raw diamonds or gemstones and combines it with polished stones and gives the whole piece a very raw and earthy feel. i find this quite unique and beautiful.

 

unique chair designs

the designer of this chair is Antonio Pio Saracino
i think this is such an awsome design. its funky and classy as well as modern. im not so sure of the stability of it though it almost looks as though its going to fall back but im sure it is stable



this is another chair i found which i think has a very unique and interesting look to it.
i love how they ended the seat off with  the jaggedy effect, it has a nice contrast to the smooth seat. i doubt its very comfortable but im sure one pillow would do the trick.

unique jewellery techniques and designs

i find these rings really original as they re not only chunky but have a sence of layers.

i love how the layers form part of the shape of the design and are not just randomly there.

personally my favourite out of the four images is the top left as it has a nice sence of flow and line.