On my explorations I recorded things that I came across. In particular things that caught my eye, for one reason or another. A lot of this process was done by taking hundreds and hundreds of photos. I also collected bits and bobs. Yet, sometimes you can’t or shouldn’t take things with you, such as national parks or sacred places, also items which may impact the flora and fauna around them. I explored a way that I could take a memory of the thing that caught my eye. One of the solutions was two-part silicone (the blue material in the images).
Once the silicone set, I took the samples back to the studio to explore further. I cast into the silicone mould with resin. This allows me to be able to examine the surface. I then took those resin textures and cast some of them into sterling silver by using the process of sand casting. It was wonderful to see how the textures changed once they were in metal. Some were spectacular and tactile, others were a little more subdued, losing some of their magic in the material change and the loss of colour. It was an absolutely fascinating process.
Resin casts of the silicone samples.
The result of the sand casting process. At the top is the original resin sample, the blackened form on the left is the burnt sand, and on the right is the newly cast sterling silver.
Some completes trials in sterling silver. The texture samples include rock surface, knots in driftwood, and a shell’s surface.
For this iteration of the texture library I created rings out of the sterling silver textures. I enjoyed the idea that you could carry with you a reminder of a place. It could be used to ground the wearer by playing with the texture of the ring’s surface. In the images below the textures include pumice from Owhiro Bay (far left), a sand dollar from Otaki Beach (top), Driftwood from St Heliers Beach (bottom), mudstone from St Heliers Beach (far left). The ring collection below were a very small sample fo the experiments created in resin, as well as textures cast into sterling silver. The series are on show at the Depot Artspace in Davenport, Auckland, until 20 December 2023.
This process was just the beginning. It was merely one way to use the silicone samples. I look forward to exploring how else they might come to influence my making. Ideas include the patterns inspired by the textures, using wax casting into the mould like the resin, and many many more…
