Or then again...

I have instead used the Vetkat exhibition as an opportunity to explore the technique of etching and enamelling as means to make silhouetted imagery aswell as an aged effect.

Arrow Exhibition on the art of Vetkat Regopstaan Kruiper

Because my mind is in the 19th Century, I am combining this design with that of my own work. The image i have chosen to use is arguably a protea/cabbage of sorts/shrub/ as i interperet, a sort "tumble-weed".

The late artist who drew the image is from a setting familiar to me: the Kalahari Desert. Which after running away with itself, my imagination allowed to transform into its own version of the "Wild Wild West". The Bushmen or San, in this instance, being the "other" whose roll was previously filled by the Native American Indians.

In any case, I have decided to make a neck piece, possibly a choker, using a copper etched and enamelled pendant set in a silver frame for which i am using 19th century mirrors as reference. 

"English Children's Costume"

I have been reading about the progression of children's clothing from the start of the 19th century and until the start of the 20th. I was interested to read that children's clothing used to, in the 1700s, be fashioned exactly on those of the adults of the time and not until the 19th century did children have their own, more practical, fashion.
This in itself of course still see-sawed between relatively practical and ridiculous, especially in the case of the hats and the dress skirts which fluctuated massively in size and style. It was these impracticalities, however, that i suppose to be the reason why these objects are so recognisable even from silhouette or stylised image.

 

Interestingly, young boys were said to have been wearing long trousers for many (about 40) years before the adult men took on the fashion.

(Brooke, I; English Children's Costume since 1775, 1935; A & C. Black, Ltd; London

Serviette holder

I experimented with some pre-prototypes of a serviette holder, onto which I will build a more detailed design relating to my work. The holders thus far were just made of aluminium and cardboard and were focussed more on the shape of the holder than anything else.