Mia Jensen

Mia was born on the 22^nd of august 1989 in South Africa.  And she was raised in Flamingo Vlei, table view in Cape Town. Mia matriculated at the age of 17. After her matric she decided to take a Gap year and work for her father’s company at bijoux inex watch and strap whole salors doing all different types of work and trying to deciding on what to study.

But while working at the bijoux inex she got to meet and know lots of jewelers from supplying them with work. That is when she realized that she had to do something that she can use her hands. She did some research and decide on doing jewellery design and manufacture with the idea of joining the family business bijoux inex and expanding it in the long run. Currently she is doing her third year, working part time and doing private jewellery jobs as well as data capturing. During the holidays Mia likes working at the bijoux inex the family business learning more about the business.

Design philosophy

Principle concerns

Mia’s principal and philosophy in design is that she would like to come up with her own personal and unique style of creating  jewellery  that is one of a kind, so that the customers can feel  comfortable with the idea that their item is unique.

Attitude to design

Her attitude towards design is more relaxed, knowing that everybody likes different  things in life, for  a different reasons, she like to look into that as a motivation, Mia is inspired by shapes and forms, she does  not find that in fine jewellery,

Themes

Mia’s theme is the use of organic shapes, textures, gemstones, raw and cut organic curves. To create beautiful and unique design.

Below are pictures of her work that I liked the most. This was her 6 ring project for second year. Casted and stones set on top.

Influences

She is more influenced by the life of nature and simple things in life, not just in general but also zooming in and looking at things in different views. “…Being able to look at a spider web after its rain and take in the actual beauty of Mother Nature really works for her…” she says.

Contribution to world of design

Mia’s contribution to the design world is that she would like to illustrate how forms and shapes from nature can be appreciated in the luxury world of jewellery and etc.

Market myself

At the moment Mia only uses facebook and mostly word of mouth, but in future she would like to broaden her marketing strategy by using flyers, twitter, and posters.

 Techniques

Mia likes using wire work, enameling, wax casting, setting, flypressing, Repousse, resing, roll pressing, hollow construction, sweat soldering, etc

Materials

She mostly uses silver, gemstones, enamel and wood

Enameling Earring, i like the use of the colours

Wax casted pendant, drawn up on Rhino and casted in silver

One of her 2nd year projects where she used wood inlay

CASE STUDY NO 1. ON JENNIFER FISHER

    Jennifer Fisher

While doing my reaserch I find it very hard to decide on which jewellery designer I should do. After a long search I came across Jennifer Fisher a jewellery designer, who cought my eyes and interested me.

Jennifer Fisher is a native woman from Santa Barbara, California. She is an art historian, critic and curator specializing in contemporary art and culture studies. While she was doing her research, she also managed to get involved into cultural studies and decided to examine contemporary art, curatorial practice, display culture and the aesthetics of the non-visual senses.

 She is one of the founding members of the curatorial collaborative DisplayCult which produced the exhibitions Counter Poses in 1998, Vital Signs in 2000, Museopathy in 2001 and Linda Montano: 14 Years of Living Art (2002), among other projects. Jennifer Fisher worked for six years as an assistant editor of Parachute magazine; she later became the editor of Technologies of Intuition an anthology of texts, interviews and artists' projects on the theme of intuition. Jennifer Fisher also worked as a Contemporary Art Fellow at the Canadian Centre for the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Canada,

Jennifer started her fashion career working as a wardrobe stylist for many for many films, television shows, and commercials. Within her 10 years as a wardrobe stylist, she has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Jennifer met her husband and decided to move to New York City where they planned to start a family. But it was not easy for them. So after a long struggle, trying to have children, Jennifer finally gave birth to a baby boy named Shane. In March 2005. Jennifer wanted a unique piece of jewelry with her son’s name on it that shows her style and means something to her, but not mass produce. As it was a strungle for her to have kids.

But unfortunately she couldn’t find a piece of jewellery that she rely wanted so she decide to take the matter in her own hands, by designing her own special piece that reflected the significance of his son’s birth. A simple dog charm hand tag with Shane on it. And this is where Jennifer fisher’s line began and her as a jewellery designer all start. As friends, family and other people started asking Jennifer to start making them pieces that meant something to them as well.

As from that day Jennifer’s line has grown, from women of everyday’s life to celebrities. Such as Nicole Kidman, Jessica Parker, Naomi Watts, Liv Tyler, Uma Thurman, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Womans of all ages, some of Jennifer’s jewellery have been featured in some movies and series such as, Gossip girls and sex and the city.

When you look at Jennifer's line, you will see yellow, rose and white gold. The jewelry can also be accented with brown, black and white diamonds. And the way she combines the material I think it’s just awesome

In almost all of the 14k gold pieces in the Jennifer’s collection can be hand stamped with names, monograms, initials or phrases. You can add anything as long as it fits on the piece.

Jennifer fisher’s gets her inspiration mostly drawn from when she was a kid. As her line is all about what she likes and other people as well. As a young girl Jennifer use to love animals such as snakes and spiders. She also liked things like skulls, tattoos, chain-linked, steering wheels and her father’s Native American artifacts. All this helped to influence Jennifer’s art today and many more; just by these examples given we can see how this is related to her jewellery. She has this aesthetic edgy line that can be seen in almost her work. Example the Skull rings.

In conclusion, Jennifer Fisher’s line has grown greatly. From everyday living people to celebrities. Jeniffer also has a kid’s line and soon she is going to drop a male’s jewellery line as well. I think jeniffer’s line is great, lots of simple design but yet very interesting. 

These are some of jennifer's work:

 

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this design is quite interesting. something defferent from the original bycyle.
but i don't understan how it work. because the is a big gap between the seet and the handels.

design diary

Other designs i like.
Here is a lil bit of information on hurly as a brand, hurly is a surfing brand which was discover by Bob Hurley. What people don’t know is that this brand is just the surfing version of nike. As  in February 2002, Nike bought hurly from Bob Internationaly. And this is one of my favourite brand, and am liky enough to work for them. This is just one of clothing item that I think is the coolest bordshorts on the planet at the moment, this bord short is called Fly wire, it seamless, it’s a four ways stretch very light material and it water resistance. Drys in couple of munit. nw that is owsome.

What I like about this ring is that, it has a squire band which make the ring look good but at the same time as a jeweler, am just  wondering if it is comfortable. but i think it good. something different no inner sleeves.

design diary

jewellery i like.
I chose this gents ring because am not rely a fan of gold on my skin. I got this mind set that gold jewellery is only for ladies.lol. I always prefer silver and white gold. But this particular gent ring rely caught my eyes while researching for gemology assignment. I rely like the blend between the gold and the silver. I think the design is just too good. And I can see myself designing a piece like this and owning one.

infecting the city

I

I  think the festival was good, it really got me thinking... because some of the art work that was portrayed there was very simple.  some of the things i wouldn't usually look twice at, but  when Mark explained  one of the designs, it got me thinking.  if I remember correctly it was the one where the glass was on top of each other, but with different things at each end.   I also enjoyed the Congolese band that was playing, as it reminded me of home but at the same time I was  happy just to see other people listening to music from my country.

What makes good design?

According to me good designs are designs that are inspired by something very special and unique, something  that when you look at it you see originality, functionality, emotionally and beautiful. It conveys a message straight away when u lay your eyes on it. But again we are all different types of people and we react differently to differing designs. Sometimes because of our backgrounds.. For example the different cultures or tribes that we come from, friends that we hang around with.  All this can play a big role in influencing how a person perceives design.