Sneaky peak at some hot off the benches...

I have been working really hard and having a great time coming up with a whole lot of new necklaces for my next market at Bowerbird Bazaar in Adelaide.  This really is the funnest bit of my whole business.  It's all about extending time in the zone... man. My addiction to  'Zone time' is why I occasionally act a little crazy, forget to eat, smoke a little too much and generally get obsessive over the minutia of clasps, findings, finish and resolution of designs.  The resolution of jewellery is more complicated than most people realise.  To make a necklace hang right, at the right length with the correct balance and the right proportions doesn't just happen over night people!

Here is a sneaky peak at some of them...

In full production swing gearing up for Bowerbird

Hi everyone, I am at Gate today making all my jewellery components for next weekend.  I like my desk at this stage, it is a kind of organised chaos of colour.  This is the good bit where I put my superior design skills to the test (under the pump as usual) and come up with something brilliant and inspired.  That's the plan anyway.  Before I extrude brilliance through the proverbial sphincter of creation, there will be without a doubt bleeding fingers, fatigue, tears, self doubt, throwing in of the towel,  dancing, singing and of course coffee abuse.  I will get there though.  I always do.

Katrina Freene Jewellery: Bowebird Bazaar Design Market next weekend

Katrina Freene Jewellery: Bowebird Bazaar Design Market next weekend: Come and visit me at the best market in Australia next weekend on November the 9th - 11th .

Bowebird Bazaar Design Market next weekend

Come and visit me at the best market in Australia next weekend on November the 9th - 11th .

Henley Beach Esplanade

A lot of time was spent hanging out at the beach at this beautiful Deco apartment when i was at art school. good times and great inspiration. love ya Jano.

Joya 2012 4th edition of Contemporary Jewellery week in Barcelona

ang design blog: fringe and my 5th!!

ang design blog: fringe and my 5th!!: hey all!! what a gorgeous day today.. the girls and I took a mini tour of the 'fringe' today... it's another festival in march already full ...

I had a great Fringe day today with my mud mates...  Ceramicists Tracey Rosser, Alison, Ang, and rose.  We started at Gate 8 and then went into town to Gluttony where they have the best burgers ever.  We then went to the garden, Urban Cow studio and that tea joint T2 on Rundle street.  Pretty good day all round.  Check out Anges blog to see some photos.  Ciao!

I love these...

Katrina Freene

I am updating my work on the web soon so if you want to buy these one off earrings made from up-cycled tin then get them now

Design the new business - coming soon!

Design the New Business [official trailer] from dthenewb on Vimeo.

Says filmmaker Erik Roscam Abbing, "In the spring of 2011, the idea for the movie was born. Through my teaching, writing and consultancy practices, I got more and more interested in how new design approaches are helping large organizations deal with complex issues. I saw product-driven companies work to make the transition to a more service-dominant logic. I saw technology-centered companies aspiring to become more human-centered, with technology as enabler. And I saw large companies struggle with the agility and entrepreneurial spirit that is required for relevant innovation."
http://mocoloco.com

Istanbul Spice Market

Where do you find Turkish spices in Adelaide?


Very close to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is the Spice Market.


The Spice Market is an incredible place filled with amazing aromas and charismatic stall vendors vying for your business
Mmmmm..... sweet meats! I think we bought a rather debaucherous selection of turkish delight that day.

Ye olde Worlde

Check out this great post about the jewellery quarter in Birmingham UK. The processes are pretty much unchanged in the last few hundred years really.

http://narrowboatcaxton.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/jewellery-quarter.html

Dan's Wedding ring

My brother Dan got married to the beautiful Kati on the weekend in Port Stephens on the NSW coast. It was an amazing weekend in a gorgeous location.
I was honoured to make Dan's wedding ring.

Dan is a cinematography based in Sydney. It was important to Dan that the ring be light weight, strong and comfortable. It has been years since Dan wore a ring due to the nature of his work. Cinematographers work with their hands all day long and in Dan's own words "I need the hardest metal in the world". That would be titanium.
The titanium ring shank is slightly tapered for comfort and the above image shows the materials I began with to make the ring, a titanium shank and the ingot of silver to be in-layed at a later stage...

Here is my bench. Firstly I gave it a bit of a tidy up. I like to do this before beginning a new process or project.

The required tools....

Before picking up any tools I masked out the ring with tape to protect the brushed surface as much as possible.

Here I am filing the inside of the ring to a comfort curved interior finish. I really love a curved interior profile as it increases the comfort and wearability of rings exponentially which was a number one requirement for my brother.

After filing out the bulk of the material with course and fine files, I then went on to polish the inside of the ring with small buffers.


This step is complete.

The next step is to get the silver inlay into the titanium. I re-mask the ring leaving a gap in the masking exactly where I want my inlay to be positioned. For this ring I chose to slightly off centre the inlayed strip.
Using a micro grinding wheel, I ground out a slot 1.5mm wide into the ring. This process took a while as accuracy in this process is absolutely crucial.

The piece of silver must be a tight and exact fit into the groove with some over lap to strike with the hammers. Once the piece of silver has been wedged ito the groove it is a matter of hammering and trimming the ingot until it has been planished into place. I have no images of the hammering because I was so absorbed with the making process that I didn't think to take any photos.

Finito!
CONGRATULATIONS DAN AND KATI Mwah!